Bible

10 Facts You May Not Know About Me

I have revealed a little of myself. And while I’ve built a presence with a  certain identity, there are a few things you may not know about me. Welp, I guess it’s time you learned a little more about who is behind this voice. There’s some good, bad, funny, weird, and…I guess that’s it.

Number 1: My origin is West African

I found out about this during the summer. Thanks to an injury to one of my sisters in her wrist, she got it x-rayed. The doctor noticed that a bone in her wrist was “not normal” but there was nothing wrong with it and that same form is typically found in West Africans. Yay for me. I’ll have to get to know my roots. I don’t know what part of West Africa we’re from and I don’t know if it’s mom or dad’s side. It just so happens my god-siblings are West African (born here but their mother is born in West Africa). So, we’re a little more related I guess.

Number 2: I would describe my life as “organized chaos”

I’m very messy. My room is messy. And yet, I happen to know where everything is. All my important paper work is accounted for. I seem to thrive in clutter and chaos. I have a lot of stuff going on and yet it’s comfortable. When I do clean my room, it feels awkward and empty and boring. For instance, the next few months are gonna be wild. I’m lighting director for the Christmas Cantata, ALPHA Facilitator, News Desk Writer as well as blogger for FanSided, school, teaching Sunday church and running this blog. And I’m not feeling pressured at all.

Number 3: I can’t stand my voice

That video series I did? I haven’t actually listened to it. I hate hearing my voice. You know how sometimes we don’t notice things until they are pointed out to us? Then we’ll go, “Hey, you’re right!”. So, to try to prevent you from hating my voice the way I do, I won’t tell you what I hate about it.

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God and Fear

So…the Bible says you should “fear the Lord your God”. And it also says that “God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear.” So, what do we do?

We first have to ask ourselves what “fear” is.

In the context of the first verse, to me, fear means respect. You know how powerful God is, and you respect this. It does not mean we are scared of Him, like the second verse would suggest. Yes, God is not a Spirit of fear. He’s not here to scare anybody. He’s not here to make us tremble. He loves us.

If you are scared of God, know that God doesn’t want you to be. This fear is not good. It doesn’t make sense to be afraid of God. I seriously don’t think it’s okay to be afraid of God, even a little bit. It’s just not what God is about. He’s here to protect us from fear and to comfort us. He’s not going to turn around and have you fearing for your life.

People view God as this all powerful being that could snap at any moment if we do something wrong. God is patient. Yes, we should be following His commands, but, that’s because we love Him. That’s what He wants for us. He doesn’t want us to do things out of fear. He doesn’t want us to do things just to avoid punishment. There are consequences for our sins. That’s the reality. If we do something wrong, we need to learn from it. That’s what a good punishment is.

Yes, 2 Timothy 1:7 says this: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And Deuteronomy 6:13 says You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and shall take oaths in His name.

But, in terms of these verses, and for the point of my post, this verse really sends it home:

Hebrews 12:9 says this: Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

Matthew 10:28 is another good one.

Look, the point here is that, fearing the Lord your God is a wise and fine thing to do. He gave us a sound mind. You can’t have a sound mind and be scared. Fear is for the weak. Love doesn’t fear. God is love.

I know this may seem hard to get, and perhaps this is just my opinion based on how I did interpreted the Bible verses. So please, if there is anything you can show me that says that we should literally be afraid of God, let me know. I never claim to be all knowing. Until then, I’m going to continue to not be afraid of my Lord God.

-DALANEL

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Daily Good Stuff

Hello all! Today, some would say it’s Easter. For me, it’s called Resurrection Sunday. The day our Lord and Savior rose from the dead 3 days after death. Now be cool, this isn’t a Bible lesson. I just wanted to say that this is indeed a “good stuff” for me as well as for every one else on this planet. So, the good stuff today will be Easter themed. Let’s get into it with a joke:

A man was blissfully driving along the highway, when he saw the Easter Bunny hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the Bunny, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of his car and was hit. The basket of eggs went flying all over the place.

The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out to see what had become of the Bunny carrying the basket. Much to his dismay, the colorful Bunny was dead. The driver felt guilty and began to cry.

A woman driving down the same highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped out of her car and asked the man what was wrong. “I feel terrible,” he explained, “I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and killed it. There may not be an Easter because of me. What should I do?”

The woman told the man not to worry. She knew exactly what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead Bunny, and sprayed the entire contents of the can onto the little furry animal. Miraculously the Easter Bunny came to back life, jumped up, picked up the spilled eggs and candy, waved its paw at the two humans and hopped on down the road. 50 yards away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved and hopped on down the road another 50 yards, turned, waved, hopped another 50 yards and waved again!

The man was astonished. He said to the woman: “What in heaven’s name is in your spray can? What was it that you sprayed on the Easter Bunny?”

The woman turned the can around so that the man could read the label. It said: “Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave.”

Ha! Gotta love it. And what about a nice quote?

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