Author: Dalanel

Dalanelhttp://dalanel.com
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Goodbye DALANEL; Hello Dante Writes

WP_20140525_007If you’ve paid attention, I tend to end my posts with a signature of “-DALANEL”. It’s an acronym of my name so it’s a perfect signature.

However, that’s going to change. I’m going to be Dante Writes. I guess it’s a pen name. The first time I used it was on Twitter, and it’s expanded to most of my social media accounts. I have a dedicated email account for my writing life. I actually changed the author of my book to Dante Writes. My email signature is Dante Writes.

I mean, today’s my birthday and I’m feeling sentimental and crap. The name of the blog is still DALANEL so that doesn’t change. But, my name has now changed.

There aren’t many other changes coming along. I’m still hoping to add a weekly feature for Thursday though. If you’ve followed me on Vine and/or Twitter, you heard I have a new project. I wonder what it could be. Stay tuned!

-Dante Writes

Wednesday Word: The Awe Factor

Today’s Wednesday Word is one of those few times where I’m like, “That’s what I’ve been saying!”. This video really sends a message: Let’s go back to basics.

By the 2 minute mark, I knew what was going on.

That’s our problem. We have all of these denominations. I’ve always said that Jesus doesn’t care about that. All He cares is that you accept Him. John 3:16 says “for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life”. Jesus said disciples. To be politically correct, we’re the ones that created all of these denominations and titles. Jesus didn’t come for that.

And, like Kevin was saying, at some point, we need to just let go of various interpretations of what the Bible says and just say “We’ll never know”. “We’ll never understand”. And that’s okay. That’s fine. God is so great and vast that there’s no way we’ll understand Him and His ways. We don’t fully understand the simplest of things in our world, and yet we think we can tackle God? Alright.

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Tuesday Testimony: A poem of God’s saving grace

My story sounds crazy, but it’s not a lie,
Not a song or a dance, or an alibi,
In that dark valley I cried and cried,
But praise be to God – He lifted me high!

Surrounded by men with malicious thoughts,
Needing to escape without being caught,
I opened the door, jumped out of the car.
Rolled into a ditch, but didn’t get very far.

Three men ran towards me, shoes striking the ground,
Pop! pop! pop! pop! snapped each incoming round.
Guns pointed towards me, bullets whizzed by,
I expected to be hit. I expected to die.

Continue reading →

Monday Motivation: Winners vs Losers

Here’s a little something different. I’ll let the image do the talking:

fitness-motivation431

You know, I’ve been struggling trying to deal with my lighting crew. I’m no longer directing it, and there are plenty of reasons behind it. One particular reason is we’re trying to upgrade our out of date equipment but our voices are not being heard. The task at hand is proving difficult and my mindset is on the “Losers” side at this point. I have to have a renewing of the mind and think like  a winner. I have to lead my crew in this manner as well.

One day, we will win. And you will too.

-DALANEL

New Feature: Tuesday Testimony

I’ve been putting this off for a long time because I was looking for content that would be enough to justify doing this.

I wanted to see an active site with fresh testimonies. Then, I decided the old testimonies are still good.

In matching the theme of the blog, I think sharing testimonies of the good things going on by every day people is a good step. Our outlook can become better just by seeing others have positive experiences.

As I said, finding material is a great concern for me. I have found a couple of testimony sites so I should have enough for a couple of months and during that time I’ll see if I can find more.

The thing about testimonies is that they tend to be timeless. You can hear a story now and someone else could hear it 50 years later and yet the power of it doesn’t change.

So, it’s about time I got this thing started. And, the page “Share Your Story” will be updated to include your chance to share your testimony as well as other positive stories that can be used as Good News Friday posts.

-DALANEL

Daily Word: Max L. Forman; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level. Max L. Forman

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27