Don't Worry...

BE HAPPY! You all remember Billy Bass? The fish that would chill up at the dentist or your dads office? You all know the famous tune he sings. "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Last night....I really wish I had a Billy Bass in my room singing that.

I tried going to bed at a decent time last night, round 1:30, and out of the blue all of my thoughts that I normally have when I go to sleep hit in full swing last night. Mostly about the rapture. You want to know what happened? I woke up like I was in a nightmare. My heart was racing. I couldn't catch my breath for a few seconds and my vision felt strange. It was a very confusing and scary moment.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to going home, being reunited with God. However, there are some things here on Earth I truly do want to experience first. Things that aren't necessarily sins, but things that I'm pretty sure we won't get to experience in Heaven. I want to be a husband and a father someday. I have my doubts as to saying that when I go home that won't happen. I'm pretty sure sex isn't allowed in Heaven, even if it's in holy matrimony. I want to continue honing my skill and gift with hip hop. I have doubts that there will be synths and bangin bass in heaven as well.

For who I am and how I think, I'm going to just go a head and say that I'm an "Out The Box" Christian. I still love everyone who is in the box thinking (and lets be honest, there are LOTS of people who think in the box), but the way I've been seeing things and how my minds been working for me to simply say "God is good, He's coming back soon, solely say that I am unworthy of His love, and be His slave" isn't exactly my idea of what a Christian should look like. My thoughts go deeper than that. I may be unworthy of God's love, but if what I read in the Bible (John 3:16) is true, saying that Jesus was sent to atone for our sins as a perfect man, a perfect man who is God in the flesh, who died and rose again, I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line God may have had the thought of "Maybe if my children truly love me, then they may be worthy of my love." Or something like that. I get tired of people saying that in order to know God you have to do such and such. Though some of it is true, thats not all of it. Yes pray to Christ, but you don't have to do it by kneeling with your hands folded and your head bowed (though it's a great sign of respect), you can be where you are and talk to him like you would a friend or family member. You can even just think. He knows your thoughts anyways.

Going back to the topic of this blog, I know there are people who may read this and try to justify why I'm going through this right now. They may say that it's just a season. They may say that my way of thinking is causing me to go through this. They might say that I'm crazy. They might try to explain that Satan is deceiving me. The list goes on. If any of those are true and I'm not paying attention than I pray that God shows me that and I may be humble to receive it. But I really don't think thats it at all. I have a really good feeling that this is a time God is building me up. A time where my faith will be tested (not mega life or death hardcore testing, but a test) and where my future will really start to shape.

My prayer that I leave you with today is that not everyone is made to think "In the Box." God gave us our own minds. He gave us free will. I'm not saying have faith and do whatever in the world you want to do. No not at all, but if your a Christian going through some of these same feelings, pray for someone to be brought into your life that will help you. Be creative with the gifts God has given you. Be the original masterpiece God created you to be. Thats what I'm trying to do. Thats what my first album will be all about. If you're not a Christian, hey thats totally fine. You know just as well as I do the struggles of this world. I'm not here to convert you to Christ. Thats not my job. I could be a plant seeder or a waterier. My prayer is that if you are curious to know who this Jesus Christ that I speak of is that you will keep an open mind and open heart to the people you encounter who claim to be His. I understand why a lot of people don't want to be Christians. I'm not ashamed to call on Jesus name (Romans 1:16) but I am ashamed at some of the ways His name has been used. But thats for a different blog post. For now I just pray peace and blessings upon those who read this. That someone has gained something positive from this and that you be a blessing, wither you know it or not.

If you want to get a hold of me you can reach me at

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Richie.Buzz

Twitter: twitter.com/richie116

Email: gmail.com/richieycr

Till next time.

Peace and blessings

Richie Tha Rapper.

My First Blog From Myspace

This post isn't very relative for where I am today, but there still are parts that are. I'm posting this just to show where I started blogging at lol. Give it a read let me know what you think (I'm just going to post the url to it so you can see the whole blog.)

http://www.myspace.com/richieycr/blog/536956702

Be blessed.

Richie Tha Rapper.

Feelin...Stuck?

This weekend I did nothing...at all. I stayed home and did nothing except mess around on my computer. I went to church, but that was about it. I was bored for practically 3 days straight. I didn't get to sleep on Saturday morning until 6 and woke up at 2 in the afternoon. Watched some Star Wars movies and next thing I know its midnight. Got to sleep at 3 or 4 that morning and barely woke up in time for church.

Today I thought it was going to be the same. But nope, thanks to a call from a friend, her, me, and 6 other people went and did whats known as geocaching. It was interesting to say the least. It was dark, there was a thunderstorm just east of town, and it had rained a few hours prior, but it was so much fun.

Can't lie, at first I was nervous. Not because of what we were doing, but because of the storm. It seemed really really close to us. But after a while, I was just like "You know what? This is pretty darn awesome." and I just went with it. We only found 1 box. The very first one. Everything else was just difficult.

The end of our adventure tonight was interesting. We were out on a country road looking for one of the boxes, and this lady passes by, circles around, and stops to see what we are doing. We tell her what we're doing and she gets all suspicious. I kinda laughed inside honestly, but it's ok.

The basic point to this quick blog (Which I notice I tend to make them very short) is that if you're stuck in your house with nothing to do, pray for God to give you an opportunity to get out and hang with people you know. It does great wonders.

Sorry if this seems like a vague blog, kinda sleepy, but I'll be back with a new blog tomorrow or Wednesday. Be blessed all!

Richie

"I Do Believe A Congrats Is In Order!"

Wanted to do a quick blog to just say "Congradulations" to Matt Crawford and Kasey Brewer, as they are now engaged! I am really happy for you two and I hope and pray many many blessings and wonderful years for you two. Seriously. lol. I'll see if I can talk to Sho Baraka and J.R. and see if they'd be willing to play "We Can Be More" at your wedding...I think that would be well deserved.

Anyways. Just wanted to make this one kinda brief in just giving a semi-formal congrats through the interwebs. I'll leave you guys alone for now and let you enjoy this moment by yourselves that you rightly should. I'll still be up for a while so if you guys read this, give me a call whenever and I'll try and pick up if I'm not passed out.

Richie Tha Rapper

Godz Chisel'd Masterpiece (The topics)

No pic for this one. Just wanted to talk about a few of the items that I will be rapping about in my debut album.

The entire theme and concept to this album is to take you through a story and a journey through where I've gone, what I've done, and who has been there along the way. To tell you about what God is doing through me. He is the Grand artist of my life. I am his masterpiece. Yet I still need chiseled. I still need the things that aren't of God removed. There will be many metaphors, imagery, play on words, real stories, and even 3rd and 1st person narratives. I will sound rebellious at times. But there are reasons why. Here is a list of some topics that I will be talking about:

#1) Tithing. I have been blessed by so many people, yet I have found myself not giving back as much as I should or need to. I don't have a lot, at least possession's wise, but I have time. I have knowledge and, yes, even some wisdom that I can give back. I still have to get myself figured out with finances, but once I get that (and a steady job) in order, I will be able to actually give the 10% to the church. Not because I have to, but I'm learning the more that I give, the more God will bless me. I'm going to have an entire song dedicated to this. Going to be called "10%" Keep an ear out for it!

#2) Thoughts and Emotions. Lately, I've been feeling some of the small pressures of adulthood. The stress of finding a job to get money. Having a place to live. Food to eat. Place to rest my head. I'm very thankful that God has given me people who are willing to help with something at a moments notice. But with that, I've also been feeling some of the pressures that come with faith. Doubt, direction, God's plan for me, as well as what my own thoughts are about God. I've also noticed that a lot of people do not feel God at all in their lives. That is what my song "Only God" will be focusing on. To let people know exactly what the hook says: "Who can see whats on your mind? Making you defined? Only God, and who can see whats on your heart? Whats tearing you apart? Only God." I will be taking my own feelings, mixed with what seems to be general feelings about where God is in our lives.

#3) Relationships. I'm single. I kinda hate it to be honest, and I've been contemplating if I feel I'm even near ready to even try a relationship right now. Part of me feels ready, and part of me don't. I don't know. But I do know that deep down in my heart I don't want to die without having that very "Special Someone" in my life. I've got a song that I'm in the process of writing to that (I'm hoping) will have two very great spiritual and lyrical brothers on it (Matt Mic and PoRich Tha Kid) and let them have their view with where they are at with being in a relationship to marriage and children.

#4) Family. Biological. Spiritual. Friends. You name it. What a family is and who makes it up. I know people, believers and non-believers alike, who I call family because of what they have done for me and what I have done for them. I have biological family that I do view as family. And I have some biological family members that I don't see as family.

#5) Being the Body of Christ in the World. I learned over the last school year through KSU's Cats For Christ of just how important this is. I want to talk about how we as Christians have and have not been being Christ-like. And yes, I will call groups and individuals out. Myself included. So be ready for that one.

#6) Foster Care. I lived a majority of my life in it. But this one won't be about me. I will be using other peoples stories. The struggles with it. The emotions. The reality of it. But also where the individuals see themselves going. Special S/O to my man Anthony Lewis with whom I am buying the beat for the song from. Go check that brother out at caje.bandcamp.com. Dude's beats are sick as well as his flow.

Final one that I'll give out for now #7) Chasing God's heart and will. I'm slowly learning where God wants me to be. I know I still got a ways to go. I'm in the production process for that track right now, but that's defiantly something I want to talk about.

I'll let you guys know more when I have it figured out.

Richie Tha Rapper.

A Story Of A Divine Appointment

I wanted to tell a story of a true divine intervention that happened recently. You may ask "Is this person you?" Well, maybe, maybe not. I won't tell. The thing is it isn't about the person in the story. It's about what God did for him.

So this guy (for this story we'll call him...Tom) woke up on Sunday at the earliest he had waken up in months. He actually woke up in time for church. He hadn't been in about 4 months, so he was really pumped and ready to go. He had call his friend for a ride. He had to wait like 2 hours for a ride, because 0f worship practice. When they had finally started service it had gone pretty well. However Tom started feeling fidgety during worship and the sermon. He started having strange, but familiar feelings. He began to feel unreal, a very out of body experience. At the end of the sermon, Tom's pastor begun telling a story of what was going on in his family. The core of the story was telling about how keeeping sin buried deep down will eventually come out. As well as the fact that Christ already knew what was buried.

That story stuck in Tom's head all afternoon, and well into the evening that day. That evening, Tom went back to the church for some time of worship and prayer for healing. That feeling that he had during church returned during this time, then a thought and revelation came to him. God used his pastors story to speak directly to him. Then it hit him. He begun to feel horrible. he had a sin deep down that he had knew people would be hurt when it came out in the open, but he couldn't keep it in any longer. He had lied to people who cared about him about his schooling. He had done horrible in his first year at school. He started with calling his Great-Grandmother, the person who had raised him. More importantly, who had raised him to be better than this.

I don't want to disappoint anybody he though I'll be fine, I'll be able to make it through all of this. Oh how wrong he was. The lies kept building and kept spreading to others. He called his Great-Grandmother and told her about it. She was upset, but not as much as he thought she'd be. He felt so much better after he got off the phone with her. He went back inside and sat back down and listened to the worship. Afterwards, there were several people who were speaking out what God had put on their hearts. Most of which were exactly what Tom needed to hear. He finally had the courage to speak up and tell everyone there what was going on. He couldn't hold his head up to look at people to say it, but to them that didn't matter. He was holding himself accountable. He was humbling himself. He left that night feeling much better than when he got there. He still needs to tell others in his biological and spiritual family about this, and He will soon, but for right now he is going to take some rest and regain his strength, because he is extremely tired.

Richie Tha Rapper.

How to have...

Here in America right now, this topic is nothing short of appropriate. With the devastating storms that have been ravishing through the country, there are uncertainties, doubts, and very negative emotions running through many peoples minds these days. People are having anxiety attacks because of the violent tornado's that have been affecting many.

I am sure that there are many in places such as Joplin, Missouri right now that are shaking their fists at God for what has happened to them with the destruction of their home, the death of someone they know, or just because of the destructive tornado that ripped through their hometown.

Now this is nothing new though, these types of storms have hit like this before, but we aren't use to them affecting so many people. Some might say that this is the beginning of God's "Judgement." Na, I don't think so. I think this is just another tribulation that we will have to go through that will test our faith. For some of us, these storms could be used to renew and refresh our faith. For some, this could be a divine appointment for people to know Christ as their Savior. The sad thing is though...for some, wither they have already passed or not because of the storms, will not come to Christ. Thats just the harsh reality.

But I know for me, that I don't want to be scared of these storms (I want to be smart about them though, don't get that confused). I want to be able to be strong when I hear that a storm is coming my way. To know that there will be peace in it. To have courage. Not prideful courage, no, I want to have that blessed courage, that divine courage. The courage to know that though this storm can be dangerous and I will nervous and even scared, but I will know that Christ is there and that His hand will guide me through.

Now, this doesn't mean just Thunderstorms/Tornado's and other bad weather (though that could be a part of it), but with the storms of life. I have gone through bad things in my life, bad storms if you will. I have lost my family in all but death, moved more than any kid ever should, I know what it's truly like to be without friends, the list goes on. Yet, even when I hadn't accepted Christ into my life, I still knew in my mind that God had me go through it for a bigger reason than I could ever understand. The storm of my future will be like that of Kansas weather...ever present and completely unpredictable. However I shall keep my heart to Christ. I will live in the everyday and take each blessing as they come. I want to be used as a light to help show and guide others that these storms are only temporary. That there will be sunshine and a rainbow after the clouds pass.

That's all for now. I hope everyone is safe. My prayers and thoughts go out to all that have been affected by tornado's in the past few weeks. Know that God loves you and that there is a purpose in everything that He does. Be quick to listen and slow to anger. Be in prayer. Be thankful for what He has given and what he has taken.

Richie Tha Rapper.