Not many of you should become teachers [or bloggers], my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body… but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so….
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom…. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. (James 3)
Personal Mission Statement:
Before the rage came, in the years of my youth before the age of thirteen, I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee in a subdivision named Royal View. From here my father took a transfer to a small town named Kingston, Tennessee. I spent most of the greater part of my years as a child here. This is where I made choices that carried me where I never would have desired to go. These were the years of the nineteen seventies; where groups like Head East and America and Styx defined Rock & Roll. Soon glamour caught my eye and KISS defined the rock that I saw as my foundation. This did not go well at all with my parents. They already had two daughters that identified with the culture. My records were seized on two occasions; the latter found a new level of anger from my father. I now sympathize with him, he knew the route set before me; a man knows his child.
In Knoxville, my mother saw to it that we would be about the business of faith. She pursued in developing faith in all three of us. We were educated in the Judaeo/Christian concept of Christ - The Messiah. Even upon moving an hour away, she still held to the solid belief that we must be surrounded by faith. So she continued to drive us to St. John's Cathedral in Knoxville, Tennessee.
There is much said for mothers who follow the call of God concerning their children.
I received the understanding in reverence toward God from this place of worship. And they did worship in beautiful forms within its walls. I vividly remember the image of Christ at the head of the sanctuary as a child.
On the third day of February, nineteen ninety four I remember crying out to the Lord; that much is for sure. Before that day I assure you that anything but following the Lord was on my mind.
My mother died when I was thirteen and my father married within two months of her death to a lady whose husband died in the same hospital of the same disease. Within a couple of months I stole that lady’s Corvette keys off of my father’s dresser and at a high rate of speed slammed it into a tree only blocks from our house. I now know that this was the second attempt on my life from the enemy. The first was the introduction to drugs in my local middle school. And at that time in my life I did not know of this enemy nor the God of which I now serve, I had only heard of God. I ran my life by the seat of my pants, bouncing off every emotion that came my way. I navigated my life by what I could feel, what I could see, and by the limited amount of reasoning that I had acquired at a young age. By the age of sixteen, I was fascinated with drugs and the heavy metal culture in America. By the age of seventeen, when I joined the United States Navy, I had tried every known drug besides heroin.
After leaving the Navy, I began a life of working in college restaurants/ bartending and night clubs. Before Raving was popular – I raved without caution. I began selling LSD while at work in the night clubs until my customer base was so large I quit my work and only frequented the clubs. One girl I dated introduced me to friends of hers that were stripers and from there my life changed. I look back and can see that during this time my heart started to truly harden.
(Visitation with my younger sister in TSP)
I returned to my home town of Knoxville, TN. to work in a restaurant that my younger sister worked in. That lasted within the year until I started working for a lighting company that ran lighting shows for major labels and tour venues. This is when my drug of choice changed to cocaine. I do not know how much cocaine I handled or consumed, but I know that I was never without it. I met individuals who were at the top of their field in sales. I flew many times for the weekend just to go and party. I met every known musician that I ever wanted to meet and lived comfortably. But it is during this time in my life that I ended up in prison. A man owed me money and so happened to be working at a place of business. I received an aggravated robbery charge and off I went to start another chapter in my life. My address over the next years were Tennessee State Prison (TSP),
Brushy Mountain State Prison, West Tennessee, Turney Center, Morgan County Regional, Federal Holding Facility in Orange County North Carolina At Orange County I met a man named Mac Baldwin. He did jail ministry there on a weekly basis. Still to this day I remember when he walked into the cell housing. He placed a Gideon New Testament in my hands and spoke to me for a while through the bars of the day room.),
On escape from that facility, I wound up in a Leeds County, Alabama Jail. Here a detective (one who was an official bodyguard to Martin Luther King) handed a Bible to me and asked that I read it; I agreed, yet had no intention to. I was transferred back to the federal holding facility in Orange County, North Carolina and placed in the holding cell. It is here that I called out to God after much solitary time on my hands I read that Bible and confessed that I believed in Jesus being the Messiah and wondered about this Holy Spirit that Jesus was to have given to His believers. I just did not know what to do with that belief. I received yet another sentence and was shipped off to Lumberton Correctional Facility. From there I was transferred back to the Tennessee Department of Correction where I ended up in Hardeman Correctional Facility. Here I met a man named Ron Smith who was a minister that came to the prison. I learned a lot from this man regarding balance in Christianity. From here I was released, and lived in Memphis, Tn. Soon I traveled home to my youngest sister in Crossville, TN and then I took a bus to my oldest sister’s house in North Carolina for Christmas.
My plans were to head to South Beach, FL.; without absolutely nothing in my position except two suitcases of clothes and a pocket full of money. I was running away from the crazy drug filled life I had come to know. What is crazy is that I was heading to one of the larger camps of my enemy. And upon my arrival it fit me like a glove. Roughness, I had acquired during my life in the culture that I lived, but I was now in an area with an over abundance of individuals who I called ‘Webster Rough’. These individuals were the definition of mean, bad, and dangerous. But I fit in well and socialized throughout Opa-locka, Miami in the dead of night. I did very well in Miami and South Beach was my home. However, the nightlife was literally killing me. One day I called out to God to take me away and to my surprise within the year I was heading North. The fascination of my youth now had became my life. What I did not clearly see on the other side of that fascination was the end result that would put me on Fulton Ave and Presstman Street in Baltimore, MD and wind me up in the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, WV.
The streets of Baltimore
I was baptized in the Assembly of God church in Dickson, TN. Indeed what life changing experiences has given way to the day that I type this brief history of me. God directed others ( I say others because I was not listening at that time) to mold their influence on me so that in the future I would have a point of reference to go by weather good or bad about how religion effects mankind and what God desires.
Over those years I found myself totally misdirected by a fallen angle of light named Lucifer and his cohorts. Things were viewed by me that were displayed by Satan as being attractive. He was only the initiating force, for I took the scepter and ran with it as it seems, with full speed. This involved great shame to fall upon the family name and much confusion on my part to correctly discern between correct choices for my life. There I was stuck in trying to satisfy my emotional and physical desires all along not knowing that through these I would never reach peace with others nor myself.
The one man who stepped into the calling of Paul the Apostle as written in The Acts of the Apostles 26:18 "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me";
was MacBaldwin. I found in him the pure heart of a man led by the Holy Spirit, one who carried that Spirit with wisdom and understanding. I remember a total of four phone calls to him just to hear the same voice that spoke to me through those bars. He was gentle yet firm on the foundation of the word of God which needed to be laid down in my life. I owe this man my life. He set aside his convenience of life and stepped into my sin filled world snatching me out. God knows your reward Mr. Baldwin.
From the time of my baptism until now I have found in my walk that the Lord does not react towards emotional level thinking or prayer. He reacts upon faith coming from the heart and faith based prayer that is centered upon His word that has already gone out from His mouth (that which is written in Scripture).
I have met some key people in my life along the way, some were providers and some were of influence and some were for understanding and some were for just plain ol' communication. There is one thing that I have found to be true in my life and that is that I love to communicate! But for years I never developed that in myself. I had projectile communication. It was only those who cared and loved me that would even try to decipher my desire to communicate what I held passion in. One day I sat back and found this to be true. This was my epiphany. And from here the Lord impressed on my spirit to allow The Spirit to take hold on my thoughts so that my communication would be of Him. He is clearly understood by those who have an open spirit. I pray that thousands and thousands of people with open spirits toward Him will be connected to God through this ministry.
Another man named Ron Smith came into my life as I was held captive by my physical actions in life. He led me to find freedom in the Lord. I respect him and am thankful that he did what the Lord had him to do in ministry. He truly understands the love of God.
Outside of the spiritual and religious circle of life (which does not exist - I will touch on this in my teachings) I met a man named John Proctor. Now here is a man that showed me what good work ethic is and how to just get up and go and do what needs to be done in life. He just makes me smile to know him and to understand that he does not even know how much my Lord used him to direct my life and obtain a good attitude toward work.
This ministry is to build understanding upon truth that is available to all from God's spoken word to humanity through the Anointed One Jesus of Nazareth of which in turn He gave to His disciples that gave unto others who gave unto me. All being guided by The Gift left behind - The Holy Spirit.
Ah, The Holy Spirit. So it is not of will but of necessity that I share the truth about a man called Yahowshu pronounanced {yeh-ho-shoo'-ah} in Hebrew and pronounanced Joshua in English. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Joshua. It is by the will of God and the direction of the Spirit of God.
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