Take a walk with me and let's have a conversation about you...
Mini podcast series coming soon follow @brothertremikus
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Saturday, July 19, 2014
What Were You Thinking???
No one was born to be unsuccessful, in fact I believe it is mathematically impossible. If we are unsuccessful then it is because of the path we have chosen. If we are not what we want to be in life or where we believe we should be then we have to look back at the decisions we have made and ask ourselves some serious questions such as; Was this the best decision that I could have made? The answer to that question is critical but even more is the ability to critically look at the thinking which got us here. Consider this statement from Albert Einstein,"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." After coming to a resolution that a change is needed in our thinking we don't want to keep looking backward at life when we should be moving forward. If you do before you know it you will be running into something else. Trust me I know..
But should it remain that way? Do you want it to?
If not then I am going to give you the perfect formula on how to stop making bad decisions...
STOP MAKING THEM! Sound simple? That's because it is! If you know that your thought process is flawed, then you know you have to change the way you think. Change your thinking and you will change your reality. Here is another way of thinking about it. You have to become a scientist of your own life. Scientist experiment with formulas, if the end result is not what they expected they go back and take things out or add new things in, until they get the result they were looking for, but he never does the same thing expecting different results. So, how about your life? Do you need to change the people in your life? Do you need to change he environment you are in? What is it that you need to change to get better results Mr./Mrs Scientist?
We will never be able to escape the consequences of our own actions, so we need to be very patient and thoughtful about the decisions we make. We should study the "why's". Ask yourself , why am I doing this then pay close attention to your own answer and then question does it truly make good sense. Then look at every possible outcome. And if you say "Brother Tremikus, I don't want to do all of that" then I say fine, stay where you are.
Some people boldly say "I ain't gon' never change, this is who I am and I ain't changing for nobody!" Well everything in life changes. Change is a natural part of life and is a sign of intelligence as well as growth. So changing based on the circumstances surrounding you is as natural as a tree bending on the wind so that it's branches won't be broken by it. This does not mean that you are not to be true to yourself, because even though the tree branches bend, the roots remain the same. So you also have to consider your own need to change for things in your life to be want you want them to be.
Push on through the struggle..
But should it remain that way? Do you want it to?
If not then I am going to give you the perfect formula on how to stop making bad decisions...
STOP MAKING THEM! Sound simple? That's because it is! If you know that your thought process is flawed, then you know you have to change the way you think. Change your thinking and you will change your reality. Here is another way of thinking about it. You have to become a scientist of your own life. Scientist experiment with formulas, if the end result is not what they expected they go back and take things out or add new things in, until they get the result they were looking for, but he never does the same thing expecting different results. So, how about your life? Do you need to change the people in your life? Do you need to change he environment you are in? What is it that you need to change to get better results Mr./Mrs Scientist?
We will never be able to escape the consequences of our own actions, so we need to be very patient and thoughtful about the decisions we make. We should study the "why's". Ask yourself , why am I doing this then pay close attention to your own answer and then question does it truly make good sense. Then look at every possible outcome. And if you say "Brother Tremikus, I don't want to do all of that" then I say fine, stay where you are.
Some people boldly say "I ain't gon' never change, this is who I am and I ain't changing for nobody!" Well everything in life changes. Change is a natural part of life and is a sign of intelligence as well as growth. So changing based on the circumstances surrounding you is as natural as a tree bending on the wind so that it's branches won't be broken by it. This does not mean that you are not to be true to yourself, because even though the tree branches bend, the roots remain the same. So you also have to consider your own need to change for things in your life to be want you want them to be.
Push on through the struggle..
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Stop Hiding in the Dark and be somebody.
You can be somebody..
Every word in these blogs is written with the hope that you will read something that will spark something in you. I am trying to get you to see you. Because right now you are in a dark place, you are like a person in a bathroom with the lights off and the door closed trying to get yourself ready in the mirror. You know you are there but you cant see yourself, yet you are still trying to get yourself together so you come out and be presentable with sleep still in your eyes, Slob still on your face eyelashes crooked, because what you are trying to do is nearly impossible. I am trying to show you how to turn the light on so you can see yourself and that you can come out and be recognizable and presentable to the rest of us because we need to see you, not this messed up version of yourself that does not allow us to see you clearly. And end your frustration with this version of you. Why? Because you have had desires and plans and ideas in your life, about who and where you wanted to be at a certain point and some how you lost them and got distracted and you may be thinking it's too late. But it's not.They really haven't gone anywhere they have just been buried along with the real you under a whole lot of crap that you just really need to find a constructive way to get over.
You came into the world for a reason, all of us have a mission or purpose that we came into the world to do. You have a uniqueness that is only you, a gift that is only yours that no one else can do and it's your greatness its going to leave a big mark on the world when you find it and do it. And you might not believe that about yourself but it's true. You did not survive conception with billions of other sperm that were with you trying to reach one egg in a hostile environment for nothing. You didn't survive nine months of pregnancy, then the process of birth for nothing.. You didn't miscarry. You were not still born. Countless millions of others were but are alive so you survived for a reason and it's not random it was calculated. Your mother and father coming together to produce you is not as random as you think no matter what the circumstance looked like to you or them God was involved at some point.
Now for the religious folk reading this I want you to think about something. Jesus performed many miracles according to the bible in front of the disciples, he fed the multitudes with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, he healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead to life. They walked with him all the way up to the betrayal some followed him to the crossed and witnessed his burial. But when they seen him again after the resurrection they didn't recognize him, at first. That's you. You are the great miracle worker that we don't recognize and can't see because you are stuck in your past and what happened to you and what happened to you or what failures you had, maybe you didn't graduate from high school, you dropped out of college, you haven't been the best parent. This is what you are talking about. But when are you going to talk about what you are going to do to make yourself into that somebody that you know you really are!
You are in good company when you talk about not being recognized and people not knowing who you are. But the question is what are you going to do in order to make yourself known that you are somebody and you are something and that you are worth it. What are you going to do differently?
I don't write for vanity, or for pay, you don't see any ads on here. I write because I have seen people overcome difficult things in life and serious, I have seen people overcome cancer, but I have also seen them die, I have seen mothers who have lost children and children who have lost parents and these are difficult things. Life is going to be difficult, but you can't stop living you have to fight or give in and be defeated. You cant just cope with your pain because then it's just a matter of time before you are defeated you have to beat the struggle in your life. If you don't beat it then it beats you there are no ties, either you overcome struggle or struggle overcomes you. You can pick up the alcohol, the drugs, you can get turned up, you can hit the clubs and they can play the music as loud as can be to drown out your thoughts and troubles and sorrows for those few moments but at the end of the night it's all right back in front of you again. And you must ask yourself a question. What am I going to do differently? Because to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome is insanity. Are you insane? Have you lost your mind in this struggle? Have you become so irrational that most of what you are doing in your own life no longer makes ant sense? And if the answer is yes to any of these questions is yes. Then it's time for you to stop and rethink your life and figure out something different. Not later, but now, don't wait. If you know the right thing to do then do it now. And don't take shortcuts, take the hard road not the easy one, that's the one you been on. No. Take the difficult path and put one foot in front of the other one step at a time. Just keep stepping forward and not backward.
You can be somebody, but until you come out of the dark. Until you come out of nothingness, then the somebody you can be will not be seen. It is your choice. Who do you want to be? Only you have the ability to answer that question and then make it a reality.
So now make your own reality. It's on you.
Push on through the struggle
Every word in these blogs is written with the hope that you will read something that will spark something in you. I am trying to get you to see you. Because right now you are in a dark place, you are like a person in a bathroom with the lights off and the door closed trying to get yourself ready in the mirror. You know you are there but you cant see yourself, yet you are still trying to get yourself together so you come out and be presentable with sleep still in your eyes, Slob still on your face eyelashes crooked, because what you are trying to do is nearly impossible. I am trying to show you how to turn the light on so you can see yourself and that you can come out and be recognizable and presentable to the rest of us because we need to see you, not this messed up version of yourself that does not allow us to see you clearly. And end your frustration with this version of you. Why? Because you have had desires and plans and ideas in your life, about who and where you wanted to be at a certain point and some how you lost them and got distracted and you may be thinking it's too late. But it's not.They really haven't gone anywhere they have just been buried along with the real you under a whole lot of crap that you just really need to find a constructive way to get over.
You came into the world for a reason, all of us have a mission or purpose that we came into the world to do. You have a uniqueness that is only you, a gift that is only yours that no one else can do and it's your greatness its going to leave a big mark on the world when you find it and do it. And you might not believe that about yourself but it's true. You did not survive conception with billions of other sperm that were with you trying to reach one egg in a hostile environment for nothing. You didn't survive nine months of pregnancy, then the process of birth for nothing.. You didn't miscarry. You were not still born. Countless millions of others were but are alive so you survived for a reason and it's not random it was calculated. Your mother and father coming together to produce you is not as random as you think no matter what the circumstance looked like to you or them God was involved at some point.
Now for the religious folk reading this I want you to think about something. Jesus performed many miracles according to the bible in front of the disciples, he fed the multitudes with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, he healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead to life. They walked with him all the way up to the betrayal some followed him to the crossed and witnessed his burial. But when they seen him again after the resurrection they didn't recognize him, at first. That's you. You are the great miracle worker that we don't recognize and can't see because you are stuck in your past and what happened to you and what happened to you or what failures you had, maybe you didn't graduate from high school, you dropped out of college, you haven't been the best parent. This is what you are talking about. But when are you going to talk about what you are going to do to make yourself into that somebody that you know you really are!
You are in good company when you talk about not being recognized and people not knowing who you are. But the question is what are you going to do in order to make yourself known that you are somebody and you are something and that you are worth it. What are you going to do differently?
I don't write for vanity, or for pay, you don't see any ads on here. I write because I have seen people overcome difficult things in life and serious, I have seen people overcome cancer, but I have also seen them die, I have seen mothers who have lost children and children who have lost parents and these are difficult things. Life is going to be difficult, but you can't stop living you have to fight or give in and be defeated. You cant just cope with your pain because then it's just a matter of time before you are defeated you have to beat the struggle in your life. If you don't beat it then it beats you there are no ties, either you overcome struggle or struggle overcomes you. You can pick up the alcohol, the drugs, you can get turned up, you can hit the clubs and they can play the music as loud as can be to drown out your thoughts and troubles and sorrows for those few moments but at the end of the night it's all right back in front of you again. And you must ask yourself a question. What am I going to do differently? Because to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome is insanity. Are you insane? Have you lost your mind in this struggle? Have you become so irrational that most of what you are doing in your own life no longer makes ant sense? And if the answer is yes to any of these questions is yes. Then it's time for you to stop and rethink your life and figure out something different. Not later, but now, don't wait. If you know the right thing to do then do it now. And don't take shortcuts, take the hard road not the easy one, that's the one you been on. No. Take the difficult path and put one foot in front of the other one step at a time. Just keep stepping forward and not backward.
You can be somebody, but until you come out of the dark. Until you come out of nothingness, then the somebody you can be will not be seen. It is your choice. Who do you want to be? Only you have the ability to answer that question and then make it a reality.
So now make your own reality. It's on you.
Push on through the struggle
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Do you know how special you are?
While sitting in a meeting one day, a beautiful black brother native of Ghana recalled to us his life growing up in the first Black independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa. He told us what life was like having always seen a black president, growing up only knowing black doctors and always seeing black lawyers. He had always seen black people in positions of power and he remarked that he could not imagine having grown up in a country ruled over by another race of people especially under the conditions we as black people had suffered in America. He understood the great suffering we had experienced in 400 years from the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, lynching, Jim-crow, segregation, and our current fight for justice. He said that he could not have withstood what we have withstood and still be happy. He said he admired black people in America because we still manage to smile and press forward after such experience. He then asked us this questions:
Do you know how special you are?
When I reflect on this question it reminds me of a story told by Dr. Maya Angelou that she tells in an interview with Dave Chappelle, where she recalls a incident were she, without knowing who he was, ends a fight between Tupac Shakur and another man with this beginning with this same amazing question of "Do you know how special you are?"
Today as I watched the funeral of Dr. Maya Angelou along with at least 37,000 others, it came to my realization that we really have this thing all wrong. Because, we tend to see greatness later in a persons life and sometimes not until "after" their death. And this especially applies to us when we think of our own personal self. But greatness doesn't all of a sudden happen. It grows over time and it is not always going to be recognized.
I had the privilege a few weeks ago to visit and walk through some pretty good gardens, one was a community garden and the other was a private garden and as we walked through the vegetation in each garden, the gardeners asked each other which plant it was and if they had trouble recalling they would smell it and if that didn't help they may taste one of the leaves. They could not just look at the plant and tell because they are still growing and not yet in full bloom but they both had enough knowledge of plant life to know what it was. Now imagine me your brother who is not a gardener looking at all of this. I was amazed because most of it just looked like leaves to me (smile) I just spent most of the time just listening and trusting them or chewing on leaves, when you don't have a knowledge of a things then you just have to learn from those who do.
Now, where is the expert gardening guide on your life and talents? Who can see your greatness when you are not in full bloom? Can you?! And do you know that they have something called companion planting where a gardener puts different plants next to each other to keep pest away that may destroy the crop they want to grow?
If plants need gardeners and farmers to help them grow, then so do you. We choose great ones in our lives to guide us. I and many others chose Minister Louis Farrakhan. We chose him because he gives us knowledge and guidance. It's not about the personality really. What is important is to get knowledge and learn how to apply it.
Look at how we are choosing money, sex, drugs, and alcohol over books and learning and surrounding ourselves with people who are always looking for the turn up. Well, how is that working out for you? Are you like the drunken master using your master karate skills to beat everything around you? No. You are just stumbling through life and it will not change until you change it.
We have to stop with all of the excuses and the lies that we tell ourselves. You may say well it's hard out here or that the struggle is real. Yes, and? So what!? Tell that to the billions of sperm you beat out to get to the egg in your mothers womb, because the rest died in the womb. That means you were the best, the brightest and the strongest from the beginning of your conception. Yes you have been through and are going through a lot, but you have also overcome a lot and the real strength to overcome whatever difficult thing that you faced came from within you. So now it's time to dig deeper to overcome this next challenge.
How are you going to beat it? First you have to change the way you think. Find the good in the bad and focus on the good. Then set some goal for yourself, something you want to accomplish and don't stop until it's done. Find things that inspire you and feed on them. I have included a few videos that have helped me, including the interview I mentioned above between Dave Chappelle and Maya Angelou, May God be pleased with her. I hope you will find these videos helpful also. Push for your greatness because the whole world is waiting on you! Peace..
When I reflect on this question it reminds me of a story told by Dr. Maya Angelou that she tells in an interview with Dave Chappelle, where she recalls a incident were she, without knowing who he was, ends a fight between Tupac Shakur and another man with this beginning with this same amazing question of "Do you know how special you are?"
Today as I watched the funeral of Dr. Maya Angelou along with at least 37,000 others, it came to my realization that we really have this thing all wrong. Because, we tend to see greatness later in a persons life and sometimes not until "after" their death. And this especially applies to us when we think of our own personal self. But greatness doesn't all of a sudden happen. It grows over time and it is not always going to be recognized.
I had the privilege a few weeks ago to visit and walk through some pretty good gardens, one was a community garden and the other was a private garden and as we walked through the vegetation in each garden, the gardeners asked each other which plant it was and if they had trouble recalling they would smell it and if that didn't help they may taste one of the leaves. They could not just look at the plant and tell because they are still growing and not yet in full bloom but they both had enough knowledge of plant life to know what it was. Now imagine me your brother who is not a gardener looking at all of this. I was amazed because most of it just looked like leaves to me (smile) I just spent most of the time just listening and trusting them or chewing on leaves, when you don't have a knowledge of a things then you just have to learn from those who do.
Now, where is the expert gardening guide on your life and talents? Who can see your greatness when you are not in full bloom? Can you?! And do you know that they have something called companion planting where a gardener puts different plants next to each other to keep pest away that may destroy the crop they want to grow?
If plants need gardeners and farmers to help them grow, then so do you. We choose great ones in our lives to guide us. I and many others chose Minister Louis Farrakhan. We chose him because he gives us knowledge and guidance. It's not about the personality really. What is important is to get knowledge and learn how to apply it.
Look at how we are choosing money, sex, drugs, and alcohol over books and learning and surrounding ourselves with people who are always looking for the turn up. Well, how is that working out for you? Are you like the drunken master using your master karate skills to beat everything around you? No. You are just stumbling through life and it will not change until you change it.
We have to stop with all of the excuses and the lies that we tell ourselves. You may say well it's hard out here or that the struggle is real. Yes, and? So what!? Tell that to the billions of sperm you beat out to get to the egg in your mothers womb, because the rest died in the womb. That means you were the best, the brightest and the strongest from the beginning of your conception. Yes you have been through and are going through a lot, but you have also overcome a lot and the real strength to overcome whatever difficult thing that you faced came from within you. So now it's time to dig deeper to overcome this next challenge.
How are you going to beat it? First you have to change the way you think. Find the good in the bad and focus on the good. Then set some goal for yourself, something you want to accomplish and don't stop until it's done. Find things that inspire you and feed on them. I have included a few videos that have helped me, including the interview I mentioned above between Dave Chappelle and Maya Angelou, May God be pleased with her. I hope you will find these videos helpful also. Push for your greatness because the whole world is waiting on you! Peace..
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Struggles and Failure; The Real Tools for Success?
I am thankful that through all of my struggles, disappointments, sacrifices and failures that I have never lost my dreams and enthusiasm about life. I cant not honestly say that it has not been hard to find at times but I have never lost it completely. What is being written is not meant to be condescending in any way. My spirit in writing this really is one of great humility. It is my effort to just ask you to look back at the point in your life were you lost your dreams, a sort of mentally retracing your steps and finding what you lost and then continuing on with your life from that point.
All life has to have its root in some form of force or power to keep living. Plants have a simple way of doing this they send their roots into the ground to draw nutrients and water from the earth and then they send a shoot up to nurture from the light of the sun. Then you and me benefit from the power of life that comes from these plants, whether its through the making of fresh oxygen or the food that they produce. But, we are not plants in that sense we are more complex. If you were to bury your feet into the ground and try and draw up water and nutrients while standing in the sun after a while you would die if you were not placed in a mental institution first. My point is that human life must be connected to a different source.
The word enthusiasm according to dictionary.com comes from "Late Latin enthūsiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos, from enthousiazein to be possessed by a god, from entheos inspired, from en- ² + theos god]. Now think for a moment, you are the most intelligent of all creation no creature on earth has dominated the planet like man. We are the Earth's caretaker and destroyer at the same time we have that kind of juice, if you will. But the question is, how are we connected for the source of our power. Everything in existence came from the human mind either at its highest stage or low stage of development. Right now let's just look at the lower levels. Take for instance your shoes, they were someones idea, or the car you drive, it came out of someones mind. If you are reading this blog on a cell phone or PC your are looking at the physical form of what used to be just a thought. And it all is a demonstration of the "god" like ability of the human mind. What ever we think, we can make a reality.
Hopelessness comes from the same place as hope it is just a matter of how we shape our minds. I am not in anyways attempting to dismiss any of the real life experiences that have caused us to think or act a certain way. My hope is to allow us to see that what has happened to us does not define us. Instead what will define us is what comes out of us.
When I was extremely ill I had to learn how to respond to people, when they ask how are you? By saying "My spirit is good" or "I am recovering" or "I am healing" not "I am sick" or "I don't feel good" this was not easy to do but it took practice I could never allow my mind to accept the illness that was. Why should I when my "mind" wasn't sick in the first place.
Never confuse what is happening to you with who you really are. You are not a rape victim, your are not poor, you are not that little child that was molested, you are not a drop out, these are circumstances that we may find ourselves in but they are not who we are.
You must be possessed of a different spirit. The one that beat out billions of sperms coming into a hostile environment came through nine months of pregnancy, survived hours of pain through the birthing process and came into the world as a new life living and breathing on your own. That was the God Power in you. Life is not an easy process it is a challenge, so we need our dreams and hopes and aspirations to drive us or die a slow death. We sleep longer and later cause we don't have anything to wake up to. We get lost in drugs and alcohol and sex cause we need an escape to relieve us from the stress of a life without purpose, but then we find our lifestyle causes us more pain. Why because you cannot run from struggle, we must overcome it or we stay in constant pain.
Please find your dreams and if the old ones don't fit make new ones, use them to help you find you. You are the best of creation so you must push through this painful struggle of life. The pain is necessary for us to become new and better. Don't you want to see you after the pain?
All life has to have its root in some form of force or power to keep living. Plants have a simple way of doing this they send their roots into the ground to draw nutrients and water from the earth and then they send a shoot up to nurture from the light of the sun. Then you and me benefit from the power of life that comes from these plants, whether its through the making of fresh oxygen or the food that they produce. But, we are not plants in that sense we are more complex. If you were to bury your feet into the ground and try and draw up water and nutrients while standing in the sun after a while you would die if you were not placed in a mental institution first. My point is that human life must be connected to a different source.
The word enthusiasm according to dictionary.com comes from "Late Latin enthūsiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos, from enthousiazein to be possessed by a god, from entheos inspired, from en- ² + theos god]. Now think for a moment, you are the most intelligent of all creation no creature on earth has dominated the planet like man. We are the Earth's caretaker and destroyer at the same time we have that kind of juice, if you will. But the question is, how are we connected for the source of our power. Everything in existence came from the human mind either at its highest stage or low stage of development. Right now let's just look at the lower levels. Take for instance your shoes, they were someones idea, or the car you drive, it came out of someones mind. If you are reading this blog on a cell phone or PC your are looking at the physical form of what used to be just a thought. And it all is a demonstration of the "god" like ability of the human mind. What ever we think, we can make a reality.
Hopelessness comes from the same place as hope it is just a matter of how we shape our minds. I am not in anyways attempting to dismiss any of the real life experiences that have caused us to think or act a certain way. My hope is to allow us to see that what has happened to us does not define us. Instead what will define us is what comes out of us.
When I was extremely ill I had to learn how to respond to people, when they ask how are you? By saying "My spirit is good" or "I am recovering" or "I am healing" not "I am sick" or "I don't feel good" this was not easy to do but it took practice I could never allow my mind to accept the illness that was. Why should I when my "mind" wasn't sick in the first place.
Never confuse what is happening to you with who you really are. You are not a rape victim, your are not poor, you are not that little child that was molested, you are not a drop out, these are circumstances that we may find ourselves in but they are not who we are.
You must be possessed of a different spirit. The one that beat out billions of sperms coming into a hostile environment came through nine months of pregnancy, survived hours of pain through the birthing process and came into the world as a new life living and breathing on your own. That was the God Power in you. Life is not an easy process it is a challenge, so we need our dreams and hopes and aspirations to drive us or die a slow death. We sleep longer and later cause we don't have anything to wake up to. We get lost in drugs and alcohol and sex cause we need an escape to relieve us from the stress of a life without purpose, but then we find our lifestyle causes us more pain. Why because you cannot run from struggle, we must overcome it or we stay in constant pain.
Please find your dreams and if the old ones don't fit make new ones, use them to help you find you. You are the best of creation so you must push through this painful struggle of life. The pain is necessary for us to become new and better. Don't you want to see you after the pain?
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
The Awesome Reward in Overcoming Struggle Part 2
Let's continue on our study of the Book of Daniel that we began a few weeks ago. We ended last time on these words:
Because they chose to obey God over the king, then God taught them and made them wiser than the others and placed them in a more favored position with the king, because of the wisdom they displayed when it was time for them to be tested.
The King thought they were under his study and teaching following the way of his world but they were not. They rejected it, so now we are looking at how God in His wisdom begins to interfere with the plans of the world of the wicked to save His people and then use them to destroy the world and set up a new kingdom. All of us need to set a new King in our Dome. This starts with the decision to face our struggles and the refusal to give in to the pressure of opposition internally and externally. We will cover more of this in Part 2 of this blog subject...
Look at how God sets Daniel apart "secretly" to teach him (Dan. 1:8-14) then gives the King a dream and makes the king to challenge all those the he (the king) taught to tell him the meaning. They all failed him. Then Daniel PRAYS and is given the meaning in a "Night Vision." God will sometimes separate us for His own purpose but in this loneliness he is working on us and our development is taking place under his guidance. Friends don't understand, Family does not understand, WE don't even understand what is happening to us. We become a soul in transition.
So if God sets us a part from the world and teaches us and favors us then nobody can take credit for our growth, development and understanding but Him. So he makes us something new and different. And like the King, when the world sees us they are forced to bow down.
Because they chose to obey God over the king, then God taught them and made them wiser than the others and placed them in a more favored position with the king, because of the wisdom they displayed when it was time for them to be tested.
The King thought they were under his study and teaching following the way of his world but they were not. They rejected it, so now we are looking at how God in His wisdom begins to interfere with the plans of the world of the wicked to save His people and then use them to destroy the world and set up a new kingdom. All of us need to set a new King in our Dome. This starts with the decision to face our struggles and the refusal to give in to the pressure of opposition internally and externally. We will cover more of this in Part 2 of this blog subject...
Look at how God sets Daniel apart "secretly" to teach him (Dan. 1:8-14) then gives the King a dream and makes the king to challenge all those the he (the king) taught to tell him the meaning. They all failed him. Then Daniel PRAYS and is given the meaning in a "Night Vision." God will sometimes separate us for His own purpose but in this loneliness he is working on us and our development is taking place under his guidance. Friends don't understand, Family does not understand, WE don't even understand what is happening to us. We become a soul in transition.
So if God sets us a part from the world and teaches us and favors us then nobody can take credit for our growth, development and understanding but Him. So he makes us something new and different. And like the King, when the world sees us they are forced to bow down.
Resisting temptation and pressure from the world, the suffering and trust we must have...
Look at the 3rd chapter of Daniel and it's powerful meaning. Remember to read these full verses yourself along with the writing.
Verses 1-7
The King has gone back to his old ways despite what we read in the previous chapter where he learned the true power of the God of Daniel and bowed down. We see now that he has returned to his old ways and has made a golden image for the people to worship as god besides God. (This can seen today in how we go back and forth between hearing God's word but going right back to the same behavior soon after)
God is a word that means "force and power" anything that has power in our lives could be a god that we bow down to and worship. Money, sex, drugs, cars, our possessions, people in our lives, etc. So this golden image or "highly" valued image that the king set up was a lifestyle that went against what is natural and right, but he was successful in forcing people to follow his way of life because the punishment was to be burned in an oven if you refused.
To be burned in an oven could also mean the heat of the pressure that comes from resisting temptations, lust, greed, vanity, peer pressure, rejection, because now we are going against the world and everything the is acceptable in society. That is real heat and whenever any one of us decides we are going to be better and do better then our opposition comes immediately.
VERSES 8-15
Here comes the haters (smile). These are jealous and envious people who want to point you out in the crowd and make people to put added pressure on you trying to portray you as a person who thinks you are better because you don't go with the crowd. Now look what happens next:
Verses 16-20
The three Hebrew boys are tried on what they say they believe. That's not just external pressure that's eternal pressure. Are we willing to prove our belief with action not just words. They decided in verse 17 and 18 that they would rather die than follow in the way of life and worship that the king had set up. Right here we are being told that to follow God against the world takes great strength, more than lip-service.
Verse 19-23
God further test His servants. The sight gets real dramatic, the fire is raging hot, it's so hot the guards burn up just from the heat of the fire while pushing the boys into the furnace and the boys fall in. It was interesting that they were bound fully clothed "coat, leggings and turbans", and clothing is used to protect from the elements. So perhaps this could be the King's way of saying, I will destroy what you clothed yourself in, and your faith wont stand up to the fire. They were bound fully clothed in their garments to make a point. Sometimes the intensity of trials can make us lose faith or believe God is not with us in great trial, because in our estimation we don't deserve to "go through this". We have a very immature understanding of trial, that trial is punishment when that is not always the case. If we stopped and actually thought about it, if God were to punish us for our sins we would all be dead. Our trials are designed to grow us from one stage to another in our personal development as human beings.
Verse 24-30
God shows that He is not going to save us from the fire of trial, opposition, pressure, or rejection, etc. But that He will be with us "in" the fire keeping us cool if we put our complete trust in Him. And that He will use us to prove to the world that He is God and that He makes His servants to overcome the world and be rewarded for all they go through trying to remain obedient to His to will. I hope that you found this look at the Book of Daniel helpful. As usual I encourage you to Push On Through Struggle and know your reward is on the other side.
Brother Tremikus
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Never Forget Your True Value.
My last blog was very personal in nature. I shared with you all some of the deeper aspects a personal battle in my life concerning my heath. I thank all of you for your feedback and love in response to what I wrote. Many of you expressed to me the difficulty in reading what I wrote as the thought of losing me to such tragedy was very disturbing. That I understand and appreciate your words of love and encouragement.
Now, why did I write it. This is an experience that I've had over two years ago that I was very reluctant to share. But after a certain number of things that I experienced, including the question of one of my FB friends on what they should do about the thoughts they were having of suicide, it was confirmed for me that I needed to share this aspect of my own life in hopes that it would in some way serve as an encouragement for others who are now in that place that I was in.
These were the words that I received from a very close friend and brother in response to my previous blog. EXACTLY! He had effectively summed up what it took me several paragraphs to write.
Many of us have forgotten our value and some of us never even knew we had any real value at all. For example, when your value as a woman has been reduced to how good your "head game" is (and I am not talking about intellect) or when your value as a man reduced to your ability to "make it rain." or the car we drive, where we work, or how cute or handsome we are then our true value has been lost on the superficial.
One definition of the word value is:
-relative worth, utility, or importance
Human value should not, and truthfully cannot, be defined in the way that we look at a ring or a car or any other material thing nor should our value be determined in comparison to one another. The sun is not like the moon but does that make the moon any less valuable? When it is the pull of the moon that balances the waters keeping them from flooding the earth and drowning us all? But we don't speak of the moon like we do the sun. You never ask is it "moony" outside (smile), no we want to know is it sunny. Human beings are like this, each one of us having a different purpose that we are born in the world to do all of them equally as important to the other. Now just how important are we?
What does it mean to be the vicegerent of the creator? (I am purposely using the term Creator here to give the reader more of an idea of their proper place in the reality of things when we consider who and what we really are.) The origin of the word vicegerent, means "to carry on". We human beings are to carry on the work of The Creator.
Every human being has free will to do whatever they want, this is both a blessing and a curse. Just about everything in nature does what it was born in the world to do. If we make a study of the ants they are basically all the same particularly those of the same species, ants do ant stuff. We have never seen one ant standing to the side sleeping while the others work. And if we look at nature this goes on every where we look. Except with human beings yet we (you) are the greatest and most intelligent of all creation with the ability to bring our very thoughts and ideas into reality. We have been made co-creators with God. The problem is we are using our abilities for all the wrong reasons and bringing into the world from our minds all the wrong things for the most part.
What is my purpose?
Answer these two questions:
1) What do you do best?
2) And what do you like to do?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that in the answer to these two questions we will find the
purpose of our lives. Now if our answer to the above question is "twerkin" or "getting turnt up" then we have to seriously reconsider how we are living.
In the moment that I lost sight of the value of my life to others is when selfishness set in and the thought of ending my own life out of hopelessness and fear began to take root. But some of us have committed suicide without killing ourselves physically.
How?
Life is life defined as:
1) the ability to grow, change, etc., that separates plants and animals from things like water or rocks
a )the period of time when a person is alive
b) the experience of being alive
Have you ever asked someone the question "how are you?" and they respond "I am breathing"? Whenever I hear this I say to them "That's it?!" What kind of life is that when it is only defined by the ability to breath or eat. That is no life for us. Why have we allowed the struggle or circumstances, or even the failures in our life to define us. What happened to us is not "us" unless we allow it to be. Every waking moment of our existence should be spent looking for and acting on our purpose for being. We should be finding ways to live our dreams and make our lives more meaningful. Finding ways to fulfill our purpose and function. Hopelessness and fear are lies we tell ourselves. Yes you are BREATHING! So now live life to its fullest and challenge your fears. The whole world is waiting on your star to appear and maybe it will be a guide for other travelers who are lost in the night. So push on through your struggles and live your dreams.
Peace Truly;
Your Brother
Tremikus
Now, why did I write it. This is an experience that I've had over two years ago that I was very reluctant to share. But after a certain number of things that I experienced, including the question of one of my FB friends on what they should do about the thoughts they were having of suicide, it was confirmed for me that I needed to share this aspect of my own life in hopes that it would in some way serve as an encouragement for others who are now in that place that I was in.
"Never forget your value to this mission"
These were the words that I received from a very close friend and brother in response to my previous blog. EXACTLY! He had effectively summed up what it took me several paragraphs to write.
Many of us have forgotten our value and some of us never even knew we had any real value at all. For example, when your value as a woman has been reduced to how good your "head game" is (and I am not talking about intellect) or when your value as a man reduced to your ability to "make it rain." or the car we drive, where we work, or how cute or handsome we are then our true value has been lost on the superficial.One definition of the word value is:
-relative worth, utility, or importance
Human value should not, and truthfully cannot, be defined in the way that we look at a ring or a car or any other material thing nor should our value be determined in comparison to one another. The sun is not like the moon but does that make the moon any less valuable? When it is the pull of the moon that balances the waters keeping them from flooding the earth and drowning us all? But we don't speak of the moon like we do the sun. You never ask is it "moony" outside (smile), no we want to know is it sunny. Human beings are like this, each one of us having a different purpose that we are born in the world to do all of them equally as important to the other. Now just how important are we?
The Vicegerent (an administrative deputy) of The Creator
Every human being has free will to do whatever they want, this is both a blessing and a curse. Just about everything in nature does what it was born in the world to do. If we make a study of the ants they are basically all the same particularly those of the same species, ants do ant stuff. We have never seen one ant standing to the side sleeping while the others work. And if we look at nature this goes on every where we look. Except with human beings yet we (you) are the greatest and most intelligent of all creation with the ability to bring our very thoughts and ideas into reality. We have been made co-creators with God. The problem is we are using our abilities for all the wrong reasons and bringing into the world from our minds all the wrong things for the most part.What is my purpose?
Answer these two questions:
1) What do you do best?
2) And what do you like to do?
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that in the answer to these two questions we will find the
purpose of our lives. Now if our answer to the above question is "twerkin" or "getting turnt up" then we have to seriously reconsider how we are living.
In the moment that I lost sight of the value of my life to others is when selfishness set in and the thought of ending my own life out of hopelessness and fear began to take root. But some of us have committed suicide without killing ourselves physically.
How?
Life is life defined as:
1) the ability to grow, change, etc., that separates plants and animals from things like water or rocks
a )the period of time when a person is alive
b) the experience of being alive
Have you ever asked someone the question "how are you?" and they respond "I am breathing"? Whenever I hear this I say to them "That's it?!" What kind of life is that when it is only defined by the ability to breath or eat. That is no life for us. Why have we allowed the struggle or circumstances, or even the failures in our life to define us. What happened to us is not "us" unless we allow it to be. Every waking moment of our existence should be spent looking for and acting on our purpose for being. We should be finding ways to live our dreams and make our lives more meaningful. Finding ways to fulfill our purpose and function. Hopelessness and fear are lies we tell ourselves. Yes you are BREATHING! So now live life to its fullest and challenge your fears. The whole world is waiting on your star to appear and maybe it will be a guide for other travelers who are lost in the night. So push on through your struggles and live your dreams.
Peace Truly;
Your Brother
Tremikus
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