My testimony & the 2011 New Hope Summer revival

Wednesday through Friday night of this week, my church has had a revival and I feel moved to talk about it. The title of the sermon on Wednesday was "Their eyes were watching God", Thursday's sermon title was "Waiting without worrying" and tonight's sermon was titled, "I got the victory".

All three nights dealt with 2 Chronicles chapter 20. In this chapter, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah learned that 3 nations(the Moabites, the Ammonites, and others beside the Amonites) were coming against him to battle him. After finding out about this, Jehoshaphat gathered all the people of Judah in the house of the Lord to fast and to pray together to ask the Lord what they needed to do in the midst of this impending battle.

After they prayed and waited on God, the spirit of the Lord fell upon Jahaziel, and the Lord spoke through Jahaziel, "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not your's, but God's." In verse 17, still speaking through Jahaziel, God says, "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you."

The words alone from the Bible are enough to make me happy about the power of God, but the preacher spiritually set the church on fire Wednesday through Friday, and by Friday night, a few were slain in the Spirit. I know I'm not doing this revival justice because the true power and gift of God's word was being in the sanctuary listening to this revival. One point that really stuck in my head from tonight's message was an anecdote. The preacher talked about a new phone system in his church and on the phones, there's a button labeled "ICM callback". Whenever the preacher calls another line in another office of the church and that line is busy, all he has to do is press "ICM callback" and the phone will keep calling that line until there's an answer. Bringing it around to us and God, whenever we pray to God and we don't get an answer to our prayers, we can keep praying until we get an answer from Him.

Now, on to my testimony. In 1995, my dad passed. There are 2 reasons I had to smile at his funeral. One, he had the chance to see me go to college, and two, some of the last words I said to him was, "I love you." To this day, I still think about him, but I've been blessed to have good men in my church and the father of a best friend, to be in my life, and these are men that I love and respect like a father.

Then, in 1997, I was in a single car collision (that I caused) that was so bad that you couldn't tell the front of the car from the back of the car. I was knocked unconscious and life-flighted to a nearby hospital. After I awoke hours later, the doctor told me that I came to the hospital looking like I had been scalped by an Indian. I really had been busted till the white meat in my head was showing. But by the grace of God, and the prayers of many family members and friends, I'm alive and I'm smiling.

There's also been 2 occasions where my mom has been in the hospital for a serious medical issue. The last time was a couple of months ago, and it was so bad that she actually said to me, "I don't want to live anymore." These aren't words you want to hear from anyone you love, but the first thing I did on this occasion is the same thing I've done in most situations I'm not equipped to handle, I prayed(hard). And just like every other situation, God came through with an answer, and I'm happy to say that my mom is back on her feet, and doing almost all of the same things she was doing before. Driving is the only thing she isn't doing yet, and that's only because I want her to take her time before she starts again.

I say all of this to say that when I was growing up, I used to watch the people in the church clap their hands, shout, cry, dance, or run up and down the aisles, and I would wonder, "What got into them?". After all the things I've been through and everything I've seen, I've changed my tune. Nowadays, I look at the people who are sitting in church stone silent, and I wonder, "Maybe the word hasn't hit them like it's hitting everybody else, and maybe they haven't been given a reason to praise God yet." But all I know is that after all the reasons I've been given to praise God, I want to share my testimony just to let you know that He's still performing miracles on a daily basis.

Why I Go to Church

The title of this blog says exactly what I'll be talking about right now. I was moved to write this after I read "The Dilemma of the Unchurched Believer". I feel that this was a good blog because it expresses the writer's true feelings no matter what anyone else thinks.

My first reason for going to church as a kid was because my parents made me. Most Sundays, I didn't want to go and I would try to find any excuse not to go which would include lying about being sick, injured, or even losing clothes(yeah, it was that bad). But as a kid, I could only look forward to the time I was a grown up and I wouldn't have to go to church anymore.

Once I graduated high school and left home for college, my dad died. That event, plus oddly enough, reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, I began to seriously doubt the presence and existence of God. That doubt grew to denial which led me to living on my own earthly beliefs.

A number of things renewed my belief and my faith in God. For starters, I have lived through a major car accident, I've lived through sickness, and there have been many situations in my life that I had no control over yet I made it through. While some might say doctors healed me, or I had luck on my side, I know enough to be able to say that there is no book or no person that can teach someone else how to perform miracles of healing. I can also say that luck has nothing to do with the trials I've made it through because if luck truly existed, everyone would have a rabbit's foot right now. So my renewed faith in God brought me back to church. It was incredulous to me that I actually wanted to go.

But that's not the end of it because at one time(this is around 2002), I stopped going to church. My church became divided over a preacher and I couldn't stand it. I got fed up with all of these people who claimed they loved God fussing and fighting like they do on VH1 reality shows. So I figured that I could still get my praise on with God at my house by watching the t.v. ministers. This kind of life didn't work for me for 2 reasons. First, I began to see that the less time I spent being around people who were working to be more God-like and the more time I spent being around people who didn't care about religion, the less attention I gave God. Second, I came to accept and understand that going to church was meant for me to get closer to God by learning about Him through His word, and not so I can get closer to another person.

There is no man alive that determines my success or my failure, and there is no man alive that determines my salvation or my damnation. I've learned that that is why I go to church to, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." (Psalms 2:11) The journey I made to give my life to God is far from done, but it is my journey. I can't tell you who to serve, and neither can anyone else. But I will gladly tell you what He's done for me.

You can move mountains

Hopefully I won't get too wordy with this and if you take away one thing, make sure it's this:

The world will never be right, but we were never meant to conform to the world

Now I do want you to understand that this isn't a doom and gloom tirade because along with fact, I am also stating my testimony. I have learned and we all know that there are just as many people in the world that want to see you fail as there are people who want to be the ones to cause your failure. There are people who don't like you or even hate you and they don't even know you. I'm not sorry to be the one to say this, but I do pray for these intolerant ones.

On the flipside, I'm proud to say that peace and righteousness are not foreign things no matter what part of the world you live in. I know that I can say if you choose not to fall victim to an unfeeling world, not only will you accomplish greatness, but you will inspire greatness as well. Please understand that I don't necessarily mean greatness as in money or power, but greatness is always overcoming hardships, bigotry, and evil. The Little Rock Nine, Mohandas Gandhi, and Mother Teresa are all shining examples of achieving greatness in spite of circumstances, but there are so many more examples if you choose to seek them or be them.

The bottom line is that there is more than enough problems in the world to criticize, but criticism and anger does nothing. Rather than cry for change, be the change you want to see in the world. Even if you don't see yourself moving mountains, just by moving your neighbor to be that positive change as well, you have just moved humanity one step closer to achieving greatness.

The difference between God and my words

I write a LOT of words. You can see them here, on Twitter, and on sites like Brotherspeak and Hubpages. No matter where you find my words, you can see and read them as much as you like, but we can't see God. He could be standing next to me or sitting next to you right now and we wouldn't know it.

Now here's the kicker...no matter how hard I try or how hard you try, you can't feel my words, but every day God's presence can be felt. I feel God's presence every morning I wake up because I know there was no other way I was able to open my eyes but because of Him. When I hear about someone miraculously surviving a car wreck or going through some ordeal that others haven't or wouldn't survive, I feel God's presence. And every time a baby is born, God's presence is felt. Science does its best to explain birth, life and genetics because science can not and never should deal with anything that's unseen.

Yet as wonderful and beneficial as science is, nobody can fully explain who we are and where we came from because it took God to make us. I'm a writer and through my words, I have created alternate realities and I've used my words to give my commentary on the world and how I see it. God is a creator and he created the world we live on, us, and everyone around us.

The bottom line is that my words express who I was and who I am, so they serve as my own personal testimony. I know that God's presence can be felt by anyone, but it's up to you to feel it for yourself. I can only tell you what he's done for me.

The sad state of affairs in Hollywood and how I'm going to change it

I know that with the ending of Lost, Hollywood is desperate to find the show that could possibly be Lost part 2. I have one thing to say about that...

STOP DOING THAT!

Whether you liked it or not, Lost drew in tens of millions of viewers every week just to see some characters trying to deal with being on a deserted island. There will NEVER be another show like that, yet Hollywood producers and mogul types are trying to do that, but it's not going to work.

I used to be embarrassed to say that I am a t.v. addict, but my very existence is to be a writer, and as a writer I love seeing and reading other writer's creations. So as a lifelong t.v. addict I have some room to say what can and can't work right now. Flashforward being canned is proof that a Lost type show won't be well received and with the cancellation of Numbers and Miami Medical, we the people are saying we're tired of seeing 20 new medical and/or police dramas every television season.

Apparently Hollywood isn't getting this message so I'm going to do the one thing I can. I alone(at least for now) am coming for Hollywood and I am armed to the teeth with television treatments, show bibles, and scripts for shows that have never been put on television, but need to be seen. Honestly, I do want to see my name on the screen as executive producer, but more importantly, I want to keep the line of GOOD television going. Shows like Burn Notice, Grey's Anatomy, Fringe, and even Glee won't be around forever so I'm going to put my ideas and my work into enough people's hands until I get to the right hands that will work with me and put these shows on the t.v. So if you're reading this and you know somebody who just happens to work with or know one of these Hollywood types...you let them know that I'm coming for them and this determined man will not be stopped.

Faith in a faithless world

It's easy for anyone to lose their faith or even their hope for a better tomorrow considering that we live in a faithless world. From earthquakes to tornadoes and all other natural disasters, many lives have been lost. We also have to worry about con artists, thieves, rapists, murderers, and the sad part is that everything I've just mentioned is only half of the negativity that we watch on the news every day.

In spite of the truth of what I've just mentioned, I can honestly say there is a strong reason for all of us to stay strong in our faith...the strength of our fellow man or woman. There are many things that I plan to do that I know will help many people, and there are also many times that things don't go the way that I've planned them. Honestly, a lot of times that my plans have been shot down, I've felt defeated and sometimes I've even lost faith in the possibility of my actions. The good news that I can say is that God has put people in my life to give me the strength to have faith again.

Even though I'm a God fearing man, I don't expect every one to feel the way that I do because not everyone has walked in my shoes. I do know that we see the power of faith and belief in a higher power or even one's self every day. Many of us watched the Hope for Haiti telethon and heard stories about men and women who had nothing but their faith giving them strength and keeping them alive while they were rescuing loved ones or while they were being rescued. So far, that telethon has raised $57 million for relief efforts.

The main point that I want to stress to everyone is that even when you think there's no reason to hold on anymore, hold on just a little bit longer. Sometimes the plans you make aren't working the way you want them to so maybe you need to alter your vision a little bit or maybe you just need to keep working because you will hit your mark soon. Either way, you need to hold on just a little bit longer. If you're in doubt or hanging onto your faith by a string, then find someone to give you strength because I guarantee you that someone is waiting to give you a reason to hold on a little bit longer.

Isaiah 40:31 - "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.