You Are Forgiven

Before I begin anything, including my morning, I always pray to God, and thank him. So, please, let's pray.


Father that art in heaven,

I come to you, and I come seeking wisdom

I come in faith, and with thanksgiving in my heart,

For I know that you, you, are author of my life, the Lord of my soul, and, of course, the center of everything,

So, God, I'd like to thank you for all of your blessings, including the fact that I am sitting here praying to you today,

I pray in the name of the most high God, Jesus Christ, our Lord and saviour

Amen



Now, I would like to share with everyone this most interesting experience I had. As you all may or may not know, I have been baptised in the name of our blessed redeemer, Jesus Christ, our Lord and salvation. As such, I am entitled to be friends with him, talk to him, and, ultimately, share my soul with him in heaven.

Where am I going with all of this? Well, last Friday, we were praying in church to end the meeting, as usual, nothing special. Well, that's what I thought, anyway. Right in the middle of us praying, I feel this immense pressure in the form of a cross on my forhead, following by a vision. I saw, from a man's perspective, Jesus, hanging from the cross. Also in that vision, it slowly zoomed into Him, until my whole mind was wrapped around his face. Then, it dissapated, I came out of my vision, and heard the words I had been so desperately waiting to hear for so long:

"You are forgiven."

Nobody But Jesus

Please, before I even get to my article, read this. It will change your way of thinking - and possibly even your life - forever.




Are you ready for me?

Before I start, I just wanna' get a few things off my chest.

You see, being in the business that I am in, looks like everything I do,

Everywhere I go, and everything I see,

Seems to be through some kind of magnifying glass.

While you're looking I suggest you take a good look'

And I hope you find just what it is you're looking for

Just like that song says - ain't nobody's business what I do

I remember when I was trying to be somebody, but I just didn't know nobody

But now

Now, ever since God has blessed me, it seems that things are going a little

bit different

I don't see nothing wrong with a little truth

You see, the good book says that the truth is the light,

Please, I think it's time to turn on your lights and see the truth

You don't know where I've been, you don't know where I'm going, you don't know what I do.

So before you go tyring to pass judgement on me, pass judgement on yourself,

Worry about yourself, and what yourself is doing, and where yourself is going,

And who yourself has been with.

That way, you,

You, you don't have to ever worry about nobody, but Jesus.



-Intro-The Sermon; R. Kelly: 1995



Now, let's move on. Hopefully that's a good foreword to what I'm about to say. Honestly, everyone has flaws. After tonight, I'm just going to come right out and say what I want and need to say. That way, I don't have to worry about nobody but Jesus.



Everyone has flaws, everyone has sress, everyone has their own problems. Hand in hand with that everyone has their own way of dealing with such things. Now, if someone goes and loses their temper, and, perhaps, says or does something that they don't mean, are you going to shun them for it? I belive that is what has happened [tonight].



I don't have the time or energy to go much further into this, so all I'm going to say for now is: Before you go judging someone, sit back and think about it. Is that person perfect? No. Are you perfect? No. So, if you're not perfect, and you're acussing someone of something - especially when you don't know the full details or events surrounding it - doesn't that make you pretty hypocritical? I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy.



Or maybe I'm right. Who knows?

O.K., so...

Basically, since everyone else is going off and actually doing something with their life, I decided to finally do something about mine. I'm done taking crap from people, and after last night, I'm going to straight out honest with everything from this point onward, which I should've done in the first place. Starting with church.



Don't get me wrong. I love church, but I don't think it's necessary. As all these preachers will tell you,"Jesus is, essentially, the church." Um.. duh. So, wouldn't it make sense then, that we, as sons and daughters of Abraham, know that? My point being, church isn't necessary. Sure it's a place where we can all come together and share a common view, but that's the same for school, work, and a lot of other places. If you really want to know my honest opinion: I could never go to church again, and I know I'd be better off than some of the people that have been sitting there for the last fourty years, though I'm not mentioning any names.



Also, on the subject of church: judgement. Do you really want to know a sure way to get blocked out of heaven? Start judging people. I know a lot of people who do this. In fact, pretty much everyone. So, I mean, it's kinda' hard not to, right? Wrong. Jesus never judged a single person. There were people he talked to that killed people for a living, and he didn't judge them. He might not have approved of what they were doing, but he didn't judge them in the slightest. Why can't we do that? I don't. In fact, you can call me a liar all day long, but if you want to know the truth, I don't judge, hate, or even dislike anyone. Since I've started going to church, I just simply don't want to. So, I don't.



Moving on before I bore you do death, I'm going to talk about being forced, because I mentioned just simply not judging. I've posted a whole rant about this before, so I'll make it short. You don't have to do anything. You choose to. If you want to know more about that principle, ask me, or, better yet, check the Bible, since certain members of the church feel it's necessary to hide behind it.



Which brings me to my next point, going slightly back to church. The Bible. The Bible is a book, just like any other book. People idolize the Bible. Why? Doesn't it say in that very same book that people are to idolize nothing else but God? By the way, I can't wait for people from churches to read this. I hope they spit out what they're drinking when they do. I will openly share my opinion, and if you don't like it, simple click the back button on your browser, and never read it again. If you'd like to act childish and take it a step further, go ahead and block me. I dare you. In fact, if you can't simply read someone elses opinion without getting all huffy puffy about it, I'll block you.



Next on the list is religious tolerance. This is a biggy for "religious people." Like a pastor has said before,"There are 'religious people,' and then there 'Christians.'" If you're a religious person, by all means, be one. If you're a Christian, be one. Don't be a religious person trying to act Christian. You're not, and you'll only wind up further behind than serial killers. Anyways, my point for this is: You need to accept other beliefs, and if you can't, get some help. Honestly, if you're that worried about another religion taking members from your church, then you need some work. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but there's many issues more important than whether or not I go to your church. Speaking of which, if you ever. Ever. Tell me that you can't be around because of who I am, or what I believe, or what I do, then, right then, you have just gone straight to Hell, because if there is nothing else Jesus wanted to do while he was on Earth, it was to make people respect each other, and actually be able to talk to each other without getting upset because of differing beliefs.



Now, for the very few people still reading. I have many more things to talk about, so, please, if you'd like to hear a little more, Subscribe to my blog. If you actually think you can handle a differing belief, come talk to me. In fact, call me, we'll go out for pizza. If you can learn to accept God, stop judging people, actually worry about something important once in a while, and possibly even use the common courtesy bestowed upon each of us when we were born, then God bless you, and please, share some of these views. For those of you who do, and you scare some people into not talking to you, then know that you're doing exactly what God wanted you to. Want to know why? They're scared. They know you're right, and they don't want to admit that, so they hide. So, be different, shout about it, call people, write e-mails. Be bold, don't be afraid to share your view about God. It's what He wants us to do. I know because He told me.



God bless us all,

Dennis Dodd

The Human Heart

We spend years growing up, learning how to be adults, learning how to fit into whatever it is our parents want, or our teachers preach.

Anyways, that's the purpose. What they all fail  to teach us, or prepare us for, is the the dangers of the heart,;how truly fragile it is, how much care it needs. And how to best recover when our worlds are rocked.

Unfortunately, there is probably nothing they can do. Sadly, most people just say,"I told you so," or,"You'll get better, it hurts for a time."

We go on afterwards thinking,"Oh my God, this pain, how can we possible live thorough this?!"

And then, we do. Somehow, we're still alive. And the pain? Does it fade? Not when we lie awake at night, thinking about what we've lost... then it comes back, hard and fast. But, when it does, it's easier to take, because somehow our hearts have healed. Sure, some hearts don't heal back to their original state, but, whether a heart is full of scar tissue, or the tears are barely visible.

The point is... they're whole. They withstand pain beyond anything our physical bodies can know, because, when it comes down to it, the physical bodes can never understand that pain. And, we learn, and grow.

Take care of your hearts... learn to watch our for them, even in the darkest of times; they protect us. And they give us our humanity.