CHAPTER 1
My Confession andMy Potentials
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I CAN REMEMBER sitting in the back of my parent's brownPontiac vehicle, when a voice came to me to get in the frontseat with my mother, who were sitting in the passage side andmy father who were driving. As I climb toward the front, my fatherinsists me to sit in my seat. Yet, the voice continues ordering me toget in the front. After the fourth time, then my father stated "comeon up". Which then seat belt or minors were not in regulation or putinto law for being in the front. So, I climb up into the front seat ontomy mother's lap, sitting still as I look at my father, focusing on theroad. Then about one minute after being in the front seat with myparent ... Bam! A truck ran the stop sign hitting the rear passage sideof the vehicle, crushing part of the trunk and the seat I were sittingin. I was three (3) year old when this happen.
My life has been changed by accepting Jesus as my lord and saviorand having a relationship with Him. My story has three parts. Thefirst part is before knowing Christ, second is the process of getting toknow who Jesus was and is, and the third is how my life has changefor the better.
I grew up in a family that had very strong spirituality throughoutthe generations, as far as I can remember. My parent will take my littlebrother and me to Sunday's school every Sunday morning; which Ididn't like, because it was boring, dry and the teaching was not fullyin detail to make it interested for my attention. My family loved meand I loved them, but throughout my generations didn't give me anyreal way to make decisions in life. "Just work hard," which is not abad value, but didn't achieve what God want me to gain, which is theinheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.
During and after finishing college, I started a career. I workedhard to get the things that I thought would make me happy, thingsthat the world said would make me happy; And I did. You know thestuff that show on TV. A smart, pretty wife, a big old house, a fancycar or two, taking some great vacations, having tailor made clothes,and be part of a membership. Where I'm from things was o.k. Iwas looking good, successful at work, played for a semi-professionalfootball team, got an opportunity to tried out for a professionalbasketball team, everything seem great ... on the outside.
But on the inside, things were different. My life was all that greatit was just a big mess. Most of the things that I had achieved or thematerial things that I had really didn't make me happy. It seemed likemy life was still searching for something, I was just feeling incomplete;as if I was missing something. Yet, that hole I was missing createdsome problems, a whole lot of problems. I tried to fill it up with otherthings; going to clubs, house parties, having multiple girlfriends andmore things that the world said and show of being OK. Yet, I was stilla workaholic. I went to work when I was off and after clocking out,still came home late for no reason at all. I abused everything. I drankall of the time, being out late at night, and some other things that Iwon't go into now. Suit to say, I was lost and my lost-ness was killingme, mentally & emotionally. My life was ruled by the emotions offear, greed, anger, frustration, and depression.
Now remind you (in New York) that I had attended Sunday'sschool, been on the choir, and a Marshall on the Usher, but those (thechurch) only encourages entertainment and not the true understandingin details about the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit and other life learningin the Bible. Reading the Bible caused me to think about things thathad never occurred to me before. They raised more questions thangave answers. I thought, is it really possible that the whole world thatwe know and the entire universe is by chance? Was the story of Jesusreally true? Could I have a relationship with God? Was there really aGod who knew me and cared about me? I was really confused.
So I begin to have a nightly Bible study by myself. There I learneda lot of things. All of us have issues. This was a safe place to sharewhat my life was really like. A chance to be real to myself just for anhour at night; not just to read the Bible, but other "religion" books.Sometimes it answered questions, sometimes it raised more.
As I had gotten older to decide to go to church or not; on Sundaymorning I'd sit in the basement of my parent's home, watching otherpastors on television delivering the message, while my parent went tochurch. Most of the time I would go, but when I did went, I can feelthe hatred of so-called "saved" who were very, very judgmental; yet,none of them tried to reach out to welcome me in, till they show theirfake gratitude when my father introduce me. Some of you may havefaced this experience.
So, after a lot of studying, reading books and the Bible, and alsohaving small group discussions with friends, it finally occurred to methat God loved me too. That the story of the gospel was true! Andthat through Jesus and what he did on the cross, he offers us a chanceat a new start in life, a new beginning.
The Bible talk about the fact that not only does God forgives ourpast sins but forgets them too. We start life again with a clean slate.So what is my life like now, how has it changed?
God does worked quickly in the beginning and my desire forsome of the most sinful behavior slowly but yet vanished away. Nowremind you we all sin daily, whether it verbal, mental and or actions.Even to this day I believe that on Sunday, whether one worship ornot, all business should be closed from 2AM on Saturday till 12Noon on Sunday, I will explain later. I have a desire to change not formyself, but for other who are lost and may need to be put back on theright path that God has plan for them.
My personal relationships have improved. I seem to be ableto love others more now, such as my friends, those in need ofhelp—even when they did me wrong and random people. I just seethem differently now. Like that guy at work who I really don't like,the person who has a different political opinion than I do, the guywho cuts me off in traffic ... well sometimes.
The only way the economy and job creations can improve are threethings, all businesses should be closed from 2AM on Saturday till 12Noon on Sunday, paying your tithes and offering and for America tobecome Producers once again. I know many of you are scratching yourhead like ... WHAT!? See the reason why many thing are happeninghere in America which I focusing on at this point, is the people forgotabout God, they had let their job dictate who to serve on Sunday.Don't believe me? The way jobs can keep you from going and worshipGod is to either schedule you to work on Sunday's morning and byoffering to pay you, time and a half; which seems great in making afew extra bucks, but your soul will become more and more voided.In reverse, they now (most corporations or companies) will try to getmany to work Wednesday's night or up to 9pm, for you to neglectBible study. Could I be wrong about this ... maybe, maybe not? Butwhen you do miss many Sunday or Wednesday months on end, yourheart will begin to created an emptiness and you will lose since ofknowing, feeling lost and don't know why, you may also slip into oldhabits or not having life outside of work.
I can remember my Pastor (Reverend Wade Richmond) statedabout titling; that if you don't have no money to tithes, then stillcome around and touch the plate or basket. His philosophy is forthose to not feel left out or unwanted. Only God knows what is inyour heart; I had walk around and touch the plate and said, "Thankyou, God", for what He is about to do and going to do in my life. IfHe can do it for me, I know He will do for you.
I now see my business behavior differently, how I handle myexpenses at work, how I deal with my customers, how I manage myfunds ... just what will I say that will get the big deal done.
America has stop becoming producers or I should say Innovators;we had now become consumers to other countries of the world.American also needs to understand why companies outsource toother countries. Due to the facts, that when customers do a surveyon a customer service representative and fail them on the call; itgives the companies the abilities to have reasons to move to othercountries. How so ...? Well, when failing our customer servicerepresentatives, they get laid off or have them to work elsewherebeside the call centers; therefore making it more and more difficult tohired individuals to come and work for a call center, which cause thecompany more money to let go of their employees than it is to replaceworkers. So what do they [company] do? Move oversea where there isless overhead cost and taxes are fixed.
I love to screw up; I am still a mess in a lot of ways. Yes, I AM AWORK IN PROGRESS. I do not always do what I know are rightand what I want to do or be done. I am tempted by a lot of things,to abuse alcohol, smoking some of my favorite cigars, to exert mypower and control. But my life has meaning and purpose now. Justlike your life has a meaning and purpose. The Bible says that when wepromised to follow Jesus, we become adopted into His family and weare children of God. God has a plan for my life and it really excitingto see what it is, and how I might be able to be part of it.
Remember that hole, that emptiness? I do now realize that Godmakes us—all of us—with that hole. But the Good News, which wedon't get to hear much in this world; is that it's (the hole) shaped likeGod, and he is filling up mine as well as yours. Isn't it wonderful toknow that no matter what we do, how lost we may be ... God isthere for us ... That's great. But if yours is not and it's still empty,you're in the right place now. Just get into a good Bible—based placeof worship and commit daily in reading & jotting down question foryour pastor or his or her assistant to get the answer, but many of thetime if you ask God for the answer ... He will deliver them to youwhether by sign or dream.
On October 09, 2011, Apostle Ron Carpenter tend to say somecrazy things or quotes when he vent during his sermon and me whois from New York, sometime will hear some "country slang" that willgrab my attentions and I would jot it down and the Spirit will beginto open a new door for me. This is the reason why I title this bookFire on Wet Wood; you can look at it from two different points: oneis from those who are "saved" and those in the "process of being saved".I will explain and hopefully by delivering a few messages will makeyou want to continue to read on into the following chapters.
From a saved standpoint; the wood is being symbol as the heart,the water is symbolize as the oil, the anointing—which is from theHoly Spirit, also known as Christ. And the fire may be look as sins;such as drugs, alcohols, violence toward others whether it mentally orphysically; but it the Word (Pray, Praises, Healing, etc.) that is drivendaily in the spirit of the body. I think you get the point. Now manyof time when we (including I) enter into a place of worship, manyof us "act" holy, "kind" to each other, doing things that most of uswould not do outside of the walls of the place where we worship; Yet,we only see the wet wood. But as you know when you pour water onwood it just wet the outside of it, but soon it will dry up, from thefire. This is one reason why when those come to the altar, they are notautomatically spiritually change; it is a process of ridding the things orperson(s) to make your life better. Pouring water over the wood is notgoing to protect the heart from what had been corrupted. In order[the fire] to change the direction or to drive out sins is to submerge(i.e. baptize) the wood in the water (oil, anointing, Christ) for thewater to saturate deep into the wood (knowing as baptisms or beingbaptize). Once the holiness is on the inside, the whole dimensions ofthe person change. The walk become different, the separation fromnegativities is notice, the tongue speak different, kindness and love areexpress the same both in and outside of the walls, where one worship.You begin to dress different and the world will know that you areanointed and a child of God.
Now let look from the other perspective, not all water are pure ...don't you agree? The only way for the `Kingdom of Heaven' to enterwithin your heart (wood), is to rid the polluted water. Polluted watersare non-drinkable, it can cause sickness and mostly death, if consumed;you can see the dirt that float on top, and at time unable to see clearthrough. As I recall of how most, maybe many come forth to acceptChrist as their Lord and Savior; but then a few weeks later, or thatsame week on Friday or Saturday night, they slip back to their oldhabits. The heat from the fire may have been applied, but the woodhas not been clean throughout or dried out. We see that the outside ofthe wood is dry, but it is still moist on the inside. The filth, the sameold situations as the person goes through the changes, more heat fromthe fire (which can also be the Word, the preaching of the Gospel, theHoly Ghost) must continue to be applying to the wood to ensure thatthe wood is dried throughout. Once all of the polluted water has beendesiccated (dried out, dehydrated), then the Holy Spirit (pure water)can enter in. Once the Holy Spirit is invited within, then the goodness& praise will come out through as we speak.
I going to implements example of words that will get you ready,encouraging and fire you up as you prepare your heart and mind.Most of the study are from various so-called religions and how theyare taught a little different from view points, but all end up about onething, and that God—Himself.
When you learn how to pray—you won't have to talk to so manypeople. Most folk after church will ask pastors or the church (we—thebody) to pray for them or their love ones, and talk about theirproblem(s); yet, they—themselves don't talk directly to God and theywonder why their issues are not being answer. We need to stop askinganother human-being to pray for our situation(s) when we have thedirect line of communication to God.
Your money should fund your business and not determine;growth is what sustain change. In other word, most would get paidand go out to buy ten thousand ($10,000) dollars rims, but won'tpay eight ($8.00) dollars a month for life insurance. Don't you getmy point? Too many work hard for their money and don't have theirmoney work for them. Money does not sleep, putting money in aninterest bearing account it will keep working—it doesn't need nobreak, vacation or take any sick days. Your money should be workingfor you while you are sleeping, vacationing, etc.
Temptation is temporary; it is just an obscure illusion with nooutcome in the end. Before getting into a sexual relationship, letpatience take its course and it comes in through the 3's C; first isCharacter, understanding the Character (who you are and who theyare), knowing about the person, what are your potential and whatpotential the other person true potential. Understand the Covenant(can they do the job), can they walk the walk and not trying toimpress; is the Chemistry there (can you relate to them), not becauseyou and the other partner have the same likeness, but can yourelate the differences. See you have to be careful what you get into;there are many re—LEECH-ionship and no relationship. These arepeople who will suck and drain you out, whether it money, mentally,emotionally—well I guess you get the point.
Every church has a culture; every church creates its own culture.A toxic culture will eat vision for lunch; for example, you can havea great steak (church), but if your plate (the members) is mess up,you don't have a clean culture (environment within the church). Thestrongest forces in the church is the culture, in other word, the hardestwork a farmer does before he plant the seed—he has to cultivate theground. We have cultures that are set in their own ways—stating thisis how we do things here. The church creates two types of culture;who becomes hero in the church and who are monster in the church(can I speak the TRUTH!?) But to the Pastors and Leaders—Whatdo you punish in your church? Churches has gangs, who control whatturfs, who should be head usher, who should be lead singer, if themusician have you in the background and never ask of you to leada song, stay in your place. There are many family members trying tocontrol the operation of the church—who's in control of the choirs,who's in control of cooking, what food to serve different to our guests.So you must understand, if the people do not understand the why,then the people will not understand.
Most church wants to grow from the outside in and not fromthe inside out. It is about expanding your core; the reason why mostchurch not growing is because they are not taking care of the core. Iwill explain it in the word TRUE.
