roman roy + “waste sonata” by sharon olds

Everybody Says Mark Was the First Gospel, But Was It? (With Dr. David Al...

COMMENTARY:

I was going to post a point by point commentary on this interview and the essential flaw in Dr. Black's hypothesis that Matthew was the first Gospel when I realized I had already written one when this video was first posted and it pretty well hits all the points I would make if I started from scratch, so I've reposted it, below. The one thing I want to emphasize is that Dr. Black is absolutely correct about Matthew being a manifesto, of sorts, although I prefer to think of it as a polemic in support of the Judaizers who oppose Paul's mission to the gentiles, and was probably written after Galatians, to support Peter (for example, Matthew is the only Gospel that includes Peter walking, briefly, on the water, which can be seen as a device to elevate Peter's position above Paul's vision on the road to Damascus. If there is anything that is false in Matthew, that pericope gets my vote: Peter doesn't mention it in Mark, for example, and Peter was always insecure about his position as top dog in the original Apostles, which is a source of the tension between him and Paul). To sum up my premise, The Gospel According to Mark was written as a Roman military intelligence abstract of the material contained in the Quelle archives that the Romans began to assemble when Jesus appeared above the Roman military horizon as a potential insurgent when He was baptized. John Mark became the publisher of this Roman military abstract in Alexandria (Dan Wallace points out that 90% of the manuscripts we have that were produced before the 4th century came out of Alexandria) and he wrote the Gospel of John, as Dr. Black asserts, as a supplement specifically to the Gospel According to Mark. For example, the festival in John 5:1 is  Tabernacle and John Marks birthday is around that time when he turns 14.  He is 15 when Jesus is crucified, strong and fast enough to escape naked but not seen as a threat to the Roman guard mount in charge of Jesus's execution. COMMENTARY: 4 April 2020 And, finally, the codex is a Roman innovation because Quelle was recorded on loose-leaf papyrus as individual spy reports came in and the autograph for the Gospel According to Mark was conveyed to the Praetorian Guards, the headquarters of the Roman spy masters Pilate and Cornelius reported to, as loose-leaf papyrus bound at the spine in the manner of the codex. Again according to Dan Wallace, there are no scrolls of the Gospels: everything has come down as codex. Well, for reasons that you will have to come to grok in fullness, Dr. Black has all the pieces, but he's jammed them into his premise because he is old enough to have been elgible for the draft his first year of college in 1971, the year I got back from Vietnam, The consequene is he has a blind spot about all things military because he was scared shitless of going to Vietnam. And he's pretty typcial of Pro-Life Evangelical Spiritual Warriors. It's like Donald John Trump* calling himself a "War President"; or smarter about pandemics than the White House pandemic reponse team he disbanded in 2018 for the same reason the Republicans in Florida sabotaged the mechanisms for receiving unemployment: dumb ass Joe McCarthy Conservative politics. I went to Vietnam because I was a Christian Soldier and my commission was the Liberation Gospel of the Gospel According to Mark. I went. locked and loaded, to Vietnam and I earned my spurs. I have a Combat Infantryman's Badge and a couple or three scaples. I went to Vietnam to kill a Kong for Christas and I stand here and declare "Mission Accomplished". Then I came back to the World and have spent the last 49 years dealing with white, male Spiritual Warriors like you and Dr. Clark and Donald John Trump*. Which is why the suicide rate among combat veterans is 22 vets a day. You know how you like to poo-poo numerology and numerics in the Bible? Well, could make the case that the Holy Spirit has somehow suppressed the suicide rate in veterns like me to JUST 22 a day just so I can point it out to you at this very instant for the very first time anywhere on the internet of Christendom. Those who have eyes, see. The axis between Q and the Letter to the Hebrews is a case study in a generic intellince assessment process being employed in Langley, today. It's the way the etimoloigists that Donald John Trump* fired from the White House in 2018 would have gone about making a risk assesssment for the Coronavirius long before China would have permitted the word of the pandemic from getting out. You can see why the godless commie cocksuckers in Beijing would have wanted to keep the pandemic secret from the world given that America just pulled an aircraft carrier off the line to protect the crew: during the battle of Stalingrad, a little pandemic would have just added a subject to sing about to the festivities. The Gospel According to Mark is not the first intelligence report to be sent to Rome about the resurrection of Jesus. Here's where Dr. Black and I are joined at the hip: my intent is to establish the historicity of the Gospel of Mark in such a way that any rational, intellectually honest and morally anchore human being can drop kick asshole anti-theists like Richard Carrier and Richard Dawkins in their ideologically puffed up balls and through the goal posts of their own asshole pretzel logic. Dr. Black has all the same peices I do, but, because he was scared shitless of going to Vietnam and then the military gunned down the 4 students at Kent State scared all the white anti-war draft dodgers shitless after the celebration of the end of was at Woodstock which turned into rage, hie has a blind spot about the Romans because,. One, they've always been the bad guys lurking behind the scene and, two, the Romans in the first century until the Milvian Bridge in the 4rh century went to a great deal of trouble keep their existence in the Praetorian Guard and the Legions a secret, or hiding it in plain sight with the Cult of Murtha and the associated Caesar Worship, with it's baptism in blood. The Roman military had absolutely no expectation of anything like the Resurrection. None. I mean, there were all sorts of stories floating around in their mythos about “the gods” in pretty much the same way the stories about Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, but a story about a god who is born of woman, creates the structures of an army composed of Gideons poise to crush the Romans in Galilee, like they did the 12th Legion of Cestius Gallus in 68, but has the more important mission of being truly crucified, USDA Caesar Tiberius Guaranteed, stuck a fork into Him to make sure he was dead, and buried behind a stone requiring 17 men, a centurion and a corporal's guard of 2 squads of 16 men to roll into place. And up from the grave He arose! This just wasn't in the Roman field manuals, anywhere, so they began to study it. It so happens, they had already collected a great deal of data about Jesus as a routine surveillance detail when He popped up over the Roman military horizon as a potential insurgent aligned with John the Baptist. Sometime around 27, before John is arrested and they continued this surveillance with decreasing interest until He is remanded to Pilate by a Jewish lynch mob composed of all the A-List citizens of Jerusalem demanding his execution. All that spy product is the initial material contained in Q and Cornelius, the centurion in Acts 10, is Pilate's administrative chief of staff and the curator for Q from it's implementation as a subject of force protection by the Roman intelligence services in Palestine. Go back the 19 minute time stamp when Dr. Black is describing the stenographic nature of the prose style of the Gospel: the presence of the historic present is the transcribed report of a spy from the field, the raw intelligence of intelligence spy craft arranged along a meticulous and rigorous timeline exactly like the log of a ship or the book of a police desk sergeant. This is scientifically based observation for evaluation somewhere up the chain of command to squeeze out the military/political implications of all things under their purview. As Luke observes in Acts 24:22, Felix knew all about The Way long before Paul washed up from Jerusalem at his feet. And it began with Cornelius and Q. Theophilus is the spy master in the Praetorian Guard both Pilate and Cornelius report to regarding military intelligence. Theophilus has the same organizational role in the Praetorian Guard that George Smiley has in MI6: he's not M, but he M is his first report, and M speaks to the Emperor. In particular, Tiberius. Until 31, Sejanus is M in the Praetorian Guard, so it's not clear if Sejanus would have choked off the initial intelligence report that compelled Tiberius to propose to the Senate that Jesus be elevated to the status of a legal deity or not, but the timing is such that, if Jesus had died on the Passover in 31, the news of His Resurrection could have moved, unfettered, to Tiberius as early as that year. For numerological reasons, I like 33 better but only by a hair over 31 CE as the year it all got started. But the important thing is, Tiberius made his Jesus proposal after, or during, the purge of Sejanus and, as a consequence, the Senate was forever after hostile to all things Tiberius, especially Christians, which is why they went underground. If you notice, the only connection Cornelius makes with Jesus is by naming Jairus, who was president of the Capernaum synagogue. Cornelius knew Jesus, personally, and was justified by faith in Matthew 8:10. And Cornelius was in the room with Pilate during the interrogation of Jesus. Why didn't Cornelius intercede, then, you may ask. It has to do with Romans 13:1 – 7 and the spirit that fulfills the letter of the law. It has to do with the dramatic tension of “A Man for All Seasons”. It has to do with why Mitt Romney voted to convict and Socrates took the cup and Jesus died on the cross. It's why I went to Vietnam and why I left the army. The rule of law, duty and the sworn oath. That's the basis of the absolution of Luke 23:34. The letter to the Hebrews is an intelligence finding, to return to the theme of a case study in generic intelligence risk assessment. Q stayed in Caesarea and was possibly destroyed during the Jewish Wars, but Theophilus assembled a mirror, and complimentary, portfolio in Rome to study just what it all meant. Paul's role was to defend the ethic of Jesus in Rome to Theophilus and his committee/church, which he, Paul, does successfully. Unlike Athens, where he was preaching to philosophers. Paul is preaching to students of philosophy in the Roman equestrian class: their whole success was as early adopters and they already believed in Romans 13: 1 – 7, but the missing link was Melchizedek and the offering of bread and wine and that closes the loop of Moses with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Everything in the Gospels begins moving to Rome when Jesus is remanded to Pilate. Dr. Black is almost right about the relationship between Mark and the Gospel of John. John Mark is the publisher, editor, character and probable translator of the original Latin of the autograph to the coine Greek of the final version and John Mark is also the author of the Gospel of John. John Mark is the “beloved disciple” of the Gospel of John is probably 14 years old when he is witness to the Roman coup-de-grace on the cross. He is something of a mascot, a Junior Disciple, who first meets Jesus at the wedding in Cana something after Jesus is baptized, and travels around with Jesus and his crew from about that time until after the feeding of the 5000, which occurs just before the Passover the year before Easter and sometime just after John the Baptist is beheaded in 29. John Mark's chronology is not entirely reliable, but the narratives of Mark and John converge in both Gospels in Chapter 6 and diverge until they converge in Chapter 11. The Triumphal Entry  into Jerusalem happens in the morning of Palm Sunday and Lazarus is raised from the dead in the late afternoon in Bethany. John Mark was in Bethany for both the Triumphal Entry and the Scourging of the Temple. The Gospel of John is a complimentary reader to Mark and originates from the perspective of someone for whom Passover was like Christmas while the Synoptic Gospels treat Passover as an annual issue of crowd control. The anointing of Jesus is a coronation in Mark but a particularly erotic celebration in John of the Bridegroom that is an allusion to Ruth at the feet of Boaz, her redeemer. This is the best case to be made that Jesus had a wife, but He died a virgin. Matthew is undoubtedly written by Matthew Levi and is the outlier to the other Gospels in that, as Dr. Black observes, is a polemic for the Judaizers who opposed Paul's missionary to the Gentiles. Luke is making an obvious reference to Matthew's Gospel in the preamble to Luke where the transliteration is that he. Luke, is correcting what Matthew fucked up. Luke probably started Acts as an amicus brief for Paul's defense of Romans, but Theophilus commissioned him to expand his study after he, Luke, is introduced to Cornelius and given access to Q. It is obvious that both Mark and Matthew are available to Luke when he follows Paul to Caesarea and, based on an observation in David Sloan's “What if the Gospel according to Hebrews is Q”, Luke had Mark to begin with (he notices that Luke 3:1 introduces John the Baptist like the beginning of Mark  after introducing him as the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1). That's not all, but here's a little more numerology for you to consider: the 13 Epistles of Paul being with the longest and narrows to the shortest like an arrow pointing at Hebrews, which has 13 chapters, which were added in the 16th century, as you have pointed out in another video. Dr. Black has all the pieces and, if you add Richard Bauchman's eyewitness in the Gospels to the mix, and rearrange the pieces around his fear of going to Vietnam, it all leads to the nature of the canon and removes most of the mystery to fully reveal the historicity of the Mystery of the Resurrection in the eyes of the Romans back in the day.

On voting in general elections

It feels a bit like I’m sticking my head in a lion’s mouth by writing on politics; I’m praying I have the anointing of Daniel!  But seriously, more than that, I’m hoping that I can give you a few simple tools for thinking about how to vote in general elections.  I’m not setting myself up as an expert on politics - many of you know far more about this than I do - but, rather I’m trying to give you a bit of a biblical framework to use to discern much of what you might read in the papers (or on Facebook) at a time like this.  

Set Politics and General Elections in the big story of History

The Bible constantly calls us to live in day in view of the big story of history.  We live in the Now and the Not Yet of the Kingdom; the grubby orange.  The world was glorious gold (Gen 1-2) but human rebellion against God turned it dark red (Gen 3); corruption, sin, selfishness and reckless ambition were and are rife (Romans 1, Romans 3:9-18).  But God acted in Jesus to begin to restore his glorious golden goodness to the world (Romans 5-6).  Jesus unleashed the Spirit upon the world; a Spirit who renews, restores, forgives and makes things right (Romans 8). We live in a battlefield between the dark red and the glorious gold that seeks to brighten it (Romans 7 & 8, 2 Cor 4, 1 John etc).  This conflict renders our time grubby orange (sometimes a bit brighter, sometimes a bit darker) until the return of Jesus when all that is dark red will finally be banished from this world forever (Romans 8, Revelation etc).  Here are a few key implications of this:

We know that neither a general election nor any acts of a political party will be a decisive moment in the history of the world.  Jesus has already brought the decisive moment and he will return to bring it all to an end.  In between his comings he gave his manifesto; for his people to pursue Spirit-filled acts of worship, mission and nurture.  That is the most important manifesto around.  Elections are moments for us to express an opinion on temporary manifestos and fleeting careers.  The real work that will last is done outside of party politics.

At the same time as this, we know that during this age God gives authority to leaders - including political leaders - and that their power, while limited, is real (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2:13-17).  A bad leader can cause a lot of pain for their population and God calls us to pray that our leaders will be wise and enable their people live in peace (1 Timothy 2:2).  The implication of this is that we care about general elections and want someone of good character, competence and decent commitments to hold authority over us.

Because Jesus is our hope and only he will make the decisive shift in history we are circumspect in our endorsement of any human leader.  We know even the best of us will be mixed; some good and some bad and that much of that is only revealed over time.

Crucially, when we vote we aren’t delegating either responsibility or blame for our society onto a few elected individuals; we know the Spirit has empowered us as his church to get stuck in with the people around us; stewarding and lovingly ruling over what is in front of us to brighten up the dark red.  It’s not just our politicians responsibility to look after God’s world; Jesus has also given us that task.  And we know that the real problem with the world is the stubborn sin in human hearts.  This can’t be changed by government legislation or a rousing speech but by spirit-filled people co-labouring with God to invite hearts of stone to be remoulded into hearts of flesh.  

For all these reasons we don’t regard any political party as the great enemy or as the great hope; we see them as helpful or unhelpful partners in the nurturing of God’s world while we wait for Jesus to return.

So how do we decide who to vote for?  The key question is - in my mind - who do we believe will be the most helpful partner in nurturing God’s world in the Grubby Orange age?  I want to suggest 3 criteria that I believe will be helpful in determining which of the parties or candidates will be best:

Character

Character is forged over years and is not easy to change quickly. It is therefore a reliable guide to how someone will respond to holding power.  This is the primary underlying conviction of the bible’s criteria for leadership (1 Tim 3, Titus 1). When thinking about character we should dig past the superficial statements people make about Conservatives hating poor people and Labour hating rich people (or whatever the headlines might suggest) and try to work out what drives the people asking for our vote.  There will be a mix of motives and character traits in each of them but above all I think we want to advocate for people who are honest and who stick to their commitments and principles even when it is difficult.  Those with an evidence of just seeking power no matter what or who have clearly broken promises to those closest to them are going to be difficult people to trust with leading our country.  It is hard to discern someone’s character behind all the spin that surrounds them but it is well worth taking time to do so.  

Competence

A second area worth thinking about is competence; has the candidate or party got the ability to achieve what they say they will achieve.  This is the second criteria the bible lays down for leaders (1 Tim 3, Titus 1).  We may have a party who say things that sound attractive but have they demonstrated ability to implement what they are promising?  In my view all parties make claims that they aren’t going to be able to fulfill, but some might be able to fulfill more than others.  

Commitment to the value of every human being

The third criteria I believe it is right for us to vote on is the extent to which the parties clearly place a value on every human being.  This value will play itself out in the parties’ economic policies and in their social policies.  

Economic policies

Traditionally the economic policy of left-leaning parties such as Labour has sought to help economic ‘equality’.  They have favoured policies which try to directly raise those in poverty out of poverty.  This has often been done by seeking to redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest.  If you look at the Old Testament economic laws for Israel, they would tend to support this kind of policy (which isn’t surprising as Labour developed out of the Methodist awakening in the UK).

Traditionally the economic policy of right-leaning parties such at the Conservatives has sought to help economic ‘equality of opportunity’.  They have favoured policies which try to give every person (including those in poverty) the opportunity to achieve prosperity.  This has often been done by seeking to focus on education and through establishing a safe and stable society.  If you look at the New Testament prayers that government primarily lets people get on with their lives in peace,  you could decide that ‘equality of opportunity’ is the commitment you want to vote for.  

I believe that either commitment could, if done well, assert the inherent value of every human being.  But, are they being done well?  And if not, which party - in your view - continues to assert the value of every person?  I believe that is a hugely important question you should be asking of the economic policies of the parties.

Social policies

Parties of all colours have increasingly been making commitments in the area of social policy which I believe fundamentally deny the intrinsic value of every human being.  

A commitment to general human rights was hard fought and won for us by great Christians from the past.  We pray that God raises up more Christians today who advocate for the rights of every single individual just because they are human.

But recently a trend has developed for people to campaign for the rights of one particular group of people over and against the rights of others.  Feminist campaigners lobbied for the extension of widespread abortions, asserting that the rights of women need to be championed over the rights of unborn children (who they wrote off as not fully human).  Free market campaigners lobbied for the rights of shareholders, asserting that the rights of the owners of companies need to be championed over the rights of those who work for them (who they write off as ‘factors of production’).  Campaigners on multiple topics asset the rights for people to change their bodies or change their family relationships, prioritising a person’s ‘right of self-expression’ over the community in which they already have commitments.  Xenophobic campaigners have lobbied for the closing of borders or the attack on foreign nations, asserting the rights of those in a nation to restrict the use of its resources only to those currently living in the nation while at the same time trying to exploit resources held elsewhere.  

In this grubby orange age this campaigning and legislating is neither particularly new nor unexpected; it is the outworking of human sin. But this sin fundamentally denies the God-created nature of all human beings and is grotesque before Him.  As people who have a vote on such things, I believe we should consider very carefully who we endorse, trying to support whichever party is most committed to the intrinsic value of every human being.  I know this is complex but I believe the Holy Spirit and your conscience will guide you.

Conclusion

Like I said, I’m not an expert on politics and I know many of us care deeply about it, but I hope this article helps us take steps towards being a church where we can both disagree on who to vote for and agree on the foundational biblical principles by which we live.  But more than that, it’s my hope that we continue to be a church who actively engages with the well-being of our society not only through voting in general elections but through rolling up our sleeves and getting involved with the people around us, through the power of the Spirit stewarding and loving them with the glorious gold of the Kingdom of Jesus.  

Push Through

“Cure the sick, bring the dead back to life, cleanse those with skin diseases, and force demons out of people. Give these things without charging, since you received them without paying” (Matthew 10:8 GW).

Welcome to 2017! LOL! I’m 17 days late, but since this is my first post of the New Year, I feel that it’s appropriate. As I’ve mentioned via Snapchat recently, I took a three-month sabbatical from blogging. I needed to recharge and refocus, but more importantly, I needed to specifically hear from God regarding 2017 and handling “God’s business” for my brand, my book and all related projects.

As such, the direction of my blog (subsequent to this post) will be changing to more closely align with the message behind my upcoming book. I appreciate everyone who has supported me thus far (and I will still honor those who purchased the inaugural T-shirts when it’s time for the Louboutin giveaway), BUT in the words of one of my mentors, it’s time for me to find my tribe – those who God has specifically called me to minister to. While my goal has always been to share my gift of exhortation and scripture interpretation, I’m no longer concerned about what’s popular or what’s safe to discuss. I can’t allow self-consciousness (or even ego) to stifle my creativity. I’m getting back to why I was created.

“Alright, Tash, where ya’ been?!”

Last year was a really GREAT year for me in terms of personal and professional development. Things were far from perfect, but in retrospect, the valleys were just as important as the peaks. In life, there are only two cycles: we’re either going into a storm (test) or we’re coming out of one (testimony). Both situations are opportunities for God to demonstrate His power. Sometimes, we get caught up in the bigger picture. Sometimes, we are so close to our goal(s) and the ways and means used to achieve them that we don’t leave room for God to work (see my post “Unwrapping {Spiritual} Gifts”).

 Sometimes, we are already aware of our purpose or calling in life. We begin to plan according to what we think God is telling us to do. And because it’s working out in our favor, we automatically assume that it’s God-ordained. But, even when things are going {extremely} well in our lives, God will INTERRUPT or AGITATE our plans. Many of us will assume it’s the devil. Because who else would want to stop our shine? However, few people understand that when there is a calling or higher purpose on your life, it won’t be confirmed or affirmed {by God} without a storm or obstacle in the way. God has to know that He can trust us before He grants us supernatural access to things that we desire. Many of us will say that we’re willing to do whatever it takes, but history determined…that’s a lie. The Bible tells us that “…since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word” (Mark 4:17 NLT). Few people are able to experience or reap the benefits of God because they really don’t know Him, or have a relationship established with Him {by spending time with Him in His word}, so that they’re able to lean on Him during those times of struggle.

Simply put, if you aren’t experiencing God’s power, it’s because you aren’t worshipping and/or serving Him wholeheartedly. For many of us, the moment we start experiencing any kind of success, we forget about God. We stop asking for the wisdom to cultivate our gifts to ensure our continued success. In the spirit of transparency (because I always try to be honest about my own walk with Christ), that is the reason God placed me on a three-month sabbatical. If you know me, you know that I’m a writer to my core. This book that I’m writing is long overdue! I’ve kept a journal since I was 11-years-old. Every milestone and heartbreak of my being is forever cemented within the pages of those books. I intend to give them to my daughter one day, but as of now, no one has read them. Last year, as I went through those journals to prepare the outline for my book, a lot of things resurfaced. Going against the unofficial “writer’s manifesto,” I wrote, erased and rewrote my book three times. There were things that God prompted me to share that I simply refused. And as the initial deadline for the book approached, I felt compelled to just put something out there. But, that’s really NOT who I am. I’ve never taken the easy route. I’ve never been so callous about my gift(s). In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “I may walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”

At the same time, I started to feel overwhelmed and emotionally drained. I had many people relying on me for prayer and advice and I started to feel empty – like I had nothing left for myself. And the fact that I couldn’t call on any of these people if the tables were turned really angered me. My compassion and empathy were replaced with frustration and resentment. I had to step away from writing {publicly} as soon as I realized that feelings of torment are a clear indication that we are out of alignment and not planted in the word of God. We give our power away to the world (and our emotions) when we don’t spend time with God, rendering us ineffective to carry out our purpose. Obstacles and unfamiliar territory aren’t always a bad thing. In fact, God works best when we are at our weakest – when we are able to acknowledge that this NOUN (person, place or thing) is too much for us to handle on our own. Romans 8:16-17 says, “For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.”

The way that God loves Jesus, He also loves us. God’s promises are not based on our obedience to laws (our own means), but on having a right relationship that comes by faith (how we are justified). Sometimes, when you’re walking in your purpose, God will redirect you. He will expose you. He will break you down. But, it’s only so that He can build you up and better use you. It’s a very humbling (and yes, at times, disappointing) process, but understand that it must be done in order for you to reach your greatest potential. The laws of physics tell us that any action has an equal and opposite reaction (Sir Isaac Newton). Therefore, if you find yourself in the midst of a storm or in unfamiliar territory, it’s because you have what it takes to push through. When you’re ready for the next level, God will make sure that it appears. God operates best in an environment of expectation. Though we may not know WHAT or WHEN, we know that God will move and we trust Him enough to bring ourselves into alignment with His will.

Fourth quarter 2016 was supposed to be my book release. Instead, God changed the game on me and gave me something greater in the form of this message. If you’ve been feeling a little off course, just know that you have the power to aid God in your own recovery and redirection. It’s a part of our faith. As a show of faith, you must operate in the capacity that you desire to be in and trust God to move on your behalf. What I learned in 2016 is that is not about me nor my feelings (it’s not about you or your feelings either so get smug LOL). As Matthew 10:8 explains, my gifts are to be shared with God’s people. I can’t be effective if I’m operating out of order, and thus, I can’t be a blessing to others. I can’t serve God’s people if I don’t have a heart for them. I am doing myself (and others) a disservice when I don’t practice seeing people the way that God sees them. God had to remove the spiritual cataracts from my eyes and help me take dominion over my emotions. Although my gift is in the natural realm (writing), if I’m not winning souls for Christ, then who am I really serving?

I love you.

xo,

thecelibateshoewhore