Denial

" . . . deny yourselves of all ungodliness"

Most of us think of denial as a state of being. Having opposition to some truth that is injuring us that we are not willing to be honest with ourselves about. My wife might say:

"Eroc, you're addicted to cereal. It's a problem! You really need to stop, I love you!"

Then I might say:

"No, I am not addicted. I just love the sugary milky goodness of breakfast dessert at all times of the day!"

Then she retorts "3 bowls after 10 p.m.! That is not okay!"

Denial.

Also, true story. That actually happened.  I wonder why I can't get my lower abs back. Well that's probably a good reason. If we are what we eat then I am various meats and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Lots of it. Or Berry Colossal Crunch (Walmart brand, way better than Cap'n, doesn't tear up the top of your mouth). So comes the lesson that I must learn time and time again. Sometimes you must deny yourself. When I look back denied meant Dikembe Mutombo tossing people and wagging the finger. "No, no, no"

Andy Mineo once said 

"This year's gonna be different, I think my favorite word will be no.

Opportunities come and they go but none of them are worth my soul."

Free agency is the greatest gift we have been given but we must use it wisely. President Thomas S. Monson said "Decisions determine destiny."

Am I destined to be chubby because they advertise cereal too well? Or am I addicted? Should I stop eating so much and focus more on fitness? I choose what I will be. I change my mind. No one else is in charge of me but me. In truth the decisions are already made for us. Heavenly Father has given us the plan and laid it out in front of us. 

The scriptures are the map. The Lord is the key. The prophets are the pen. All we have to do is follow. We choose to follow and He promises to give us everything. 

2 Nephi 2:27 "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."

All things are given which are expedient unto man. We have been given everything that we need! It's all right there for us to take, but will we take it? Will you deny yourself and choose the right?

I had a friend in high school who was freakishly big and strong for his age. Freshman year he was 6'4 and 240 pounds whoa big fella! We was also coordinated and athletic, not just big. He had the opportunity to play football and basketball at the JV level and practice with varsity. It was expected for him to go D1 on q full ride scholarship somewhere. All he had to do was work hard in the classroom and on the court while steering clear of the evils of the world. 

Would he take the full ride or no? He chose the easier route. Which was to talk back to coaches, get caught up with gangs, and then drugs. He didn't do his school work. He stopped going to practice. He hung more and more with the wrong crowd. This boy could be in the NFL by now, but instead I see him at 24 hour fitness trying to lose his beer belly. He is trying to support 2 children from 2 women and still trying to overcome addictions. He is tattooed, overweight, and unhappy. Instead of denying himself the easy, worldly things, he denied himself a better life. 

The Lord wants to give us a full ride. We've actually already signed the contract and He will deliver! We just have to uphold our side. How will He put us on the field at the Rose Bowl if we stopped playing football? If we stopped practicing? If we didn't work out? If we didn't have grades? If we didn't put in the work? 

It takes work. Consistent, sincere effort. If we expect a heavenly home how can we expect not to live a heavenly life? 

Deny yourself ungodliness accept His love and His plan. We have a scholarship for Heaven, live worthy of it. Eat less spiritual cereal. Work out for your salvation. Work out your salvation.

Moroni 10:32 "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ."

Beast mode when you deny ungodliness

2 fifty

250 days with my hands clean

I gotta do this business for my family

Can't build upon it if it's sandy

Cleared for takeoff before I'm landing

And it's only up we go

If I look down might as well say Geronimo 

But that's not the way we go

Nope not anymore

Everyday I will drop my knees to the floor

I will beg my Lord please give me another 24

 Please let me Jack Bauer these hours

And I will slay these days

The past me is a terrorist and u put an end to his ways

No more replays 

I'm on to the next game

The next week

The next hour

The next minute 

The next second

I will work with every breath in my body 

You've made me a force to spreken

And I reckon my Deutsch

Will forever rejoice 

As I make the right choice

I will lift up my voice 

Lord please continue to hear me pray

Thank you, for another day

Thank you for every single hour you've been with me

Please Father, bless me with another 2 fifty

On a Train (Part 1)

You're waiting on a train, a train that will take you far away

You want to go, you're ready, there's no reason to stay

The feeling is southwest, I wanna get away

I'm back on this train not sure where I'm headed

Tears don't appear because I've already shed it

I think I'm coming to my stop but it only slows

It shows me what it knows

It knows where I’ve been

It knows where I goes

Smell the sulphur in my nose

I am the epitome of infamy

Servicing the secrecy

Protecting he who’s leaving me

Voting for indecency increasingly

Speeding down the tracks

With the wind at my back

But that ain’t where I’m lookin

Future’s coming quick, this thing’s bookin

So much forsooken

Forsaken, No fakin, Note taken

I am not he who boarded this train

Perhaps that’s why your boots shakin

Persuasion is in the air

Stop tryna say you don’t even care

I left this place with no despair

When I left this place I wasn’t prepared

All I knew is that I wanted to were

Wolf. Take the night life and coast

Darkness and boats

Down off the coast of goblins and ghosts

These demons surrounding in hosts

Damning the most, but only if I boast not in the most

High. At last I’ve arrived

Icy winds tried to push me aside

There played a song in the back of my mind

I will survive! I will survive!

POD I’m feeling so alive

The lost seem profound

The dog hates the pound

Yet it stays fed

Yet it has a bed

Though you ain’t someone’s pet

Don’t lose your head

Eating someone’s false leavened bread

Instead

Seek to follow the train

Sometimes you can’t see past the tunnel

But the destruction of the temple won’t be the rubble

The collector isn't after infinity stones

He's all about building infinity homes

He drank the chalice

To give you a palace

Are you on the right track?

Which road will you pick?

You better learn to act

Before you need a kick

Because everyone has a cross to take up

Get the work done my friend wake up!

6:51 Thursday Night

Sitting on the curb looking at this mountain like, could I really move it?

Is my strength really strong enough to prove it?

Or could I really climb this mountain of regret?

I'm so afraid when I look at it, can I even take a step?

Prophet says God will lead you but you gotta move your feet

Can I pass this test? The learning curve is pretty steep

Am I strong enough?

Haven't I waited long enough?

Isn't God enough? 

As I ponder thus

The settled dust

On my mind turns to rust

As cursed I cuss

Hardheaded I must

Be rid of this lust 

On to this trust 

That I don't have for myself 

That hidden wealth 

That remains stealth 

Until you reciprocate yourself

Review your mental health 

Because your mind needs the belt 

Discipline your endocrine

As the cogs within you spin

Are you listenin? 

Him who wins

Is within

Will you give in? 

Give up the sin

Give it up to Him

The past is grim 

The future win

Is in your grin

Righteousness is in we

Adam fell that men might be

Men are that they might have joy

Joy will not be destroyed 

Let the troops deploy 

Boss up my boy! 

It's time

It's the climb

Influence of the Maori

Blessed to go to school in Hawaii I was surrounded by the cultures of the Pacific and Asia. I learned much from all of them but one stuck with me more than the others and that was the people of Aotearoa. The Maori people. Not just because of the sweet New Zealand accent everyone else loves but because of the haka.

What most know of the haka is what they have seen from rugby which they do pre-game to invoke fear in the other team.

Totally works too. But this isn't the only reason for haka. 

The first purpose of the haka was to provide strength for war and invoke fear in the opposition. Other more uplifting reasons are for special occasions, funerals, weddings, and calls to attention. Learning from a fantastic leader at the Polynesian Cultural Center, a true Maori, was one of the most spiritual experiences I had while in college. It's amazing feeling the passion of the poetry when you scream the words of gospel truth. The spiritual sensation when you slap your chest internalizing the testimony in motion. There's nothing like it. 

This haka was written by Matua Seamus and it's purpose is to call the young men and women of the church to action. To step up to the higher plain of living and leaving the world behind. There are temptations that plague this world and though we live in it, we aren't of it. The gospel light and truth will lead us to happiness in this life and salvation in the life to come. It ain't gonna be easy, but it never was for the greatest who lived before us either. It's based off of the legend of the kahawai, a fish in the New Zealand waters. They call it the dumb fish because it would go after any lure, even if there was no bait it would still bite the hook. Anyone who's been fishing knows that once you get a hook in the fishes mouth, it's work to get it out. The temptations of this world are the hook and we are the kahawai. So many of us will see something sparkly and just eat it up! Once we've been caught up in sin it's so hard to get it out. Sinful habits and addictions are all too common now-a-days. But we can beat them! I know that the Savior will fight for us and with us if we are willing to rip that hook out, he will heal us. 

Each line that follows is the translation in English from Maori. Read through it and try to match the words with some of the actions as you watch from the link below. Matua once said "In haka, words without passionate actions are like a bird with no wings." You must understand what you do as you do and say it or it will mean nothing to you or those who witness it. Witness a call to rise up! Defy temptation! Mate Ururoa! 

(If you want to skip ahead Haka begins at 5:33)

Pakahawai

To all the daughters of God

To the young stripling warriors of today

Don’t be deceived

Many years ago

Our people fished with Pa-Kahawai

The Kahawai would seize the lure

Mistaking it for food

It would lose it’s life

Today we’re surrounded by them 

They entice 

As to ensnare us 

If grasped

It is hard to Let go – so avoid them!

Constantly before us

is the sin of Immorality – 

It is a Pa Kahawai 

Lust a is one of the deadly sins

Why are our principles decaying? 

Chastity & virtue are precious

Pornography 

Is is a Pa Kahawai

People are like a thieves in the night

Jumping and scattering

Hiding and Locking the door

Like slaves hiding in the darkness

Hiding from your children

And your companions

That’s a load of rubbish!

Pornography is like a flood of Sewage

Desensitizes the Spirits of mankind 

It Erodes the Conscience & the light of Christ 

Alcohol/Kava and Drug abuse 

Is a Pa-kahawai

You alow it into your home

The cause of Separating our Families

The cause of Shattered dreams

Today it is Destroying the mana of our youth

Yet we echo the korero

Ka minamina au ki te 

waipiro ta hokona i te po – kss ana kss ana Hi

I aha ha . . . 

The Final one 

Is Anger/Rage

It is a Pa Kahawai

It leads to Abuse of Women

It is the cause behind the Beating our Children

Families are being destroyed

Spirits are being Crushed

And Divorce is rampant as a result

Alas these pä-kahawai

Are on our Marae

Alas these pä-kahawai

Are weakening our spirits

Alas these pä-kahawai

Are everywhere - BUT

You have the power to resist them!

Let us not Die like the Kahawai

But Die like a Shark (Fighting)

Die True like a Maori

HI! 

Amene

Dark Knight Rises

“Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.” If repentance is a process then falling must be essential to that same process.What matters then after the first fall is how many more will you have? And what are you going to do about it? When we are physically falling why do we resist? We act like we’re running, flailing our arms, kicking with our legs. I believe it is because we fear the truth. Man wasn’t given wings, so falling is terrifying. There is a rush of adrenaline then the stomach feels like it’s in your throat. We fight the truth.Why do we fight the truth? Because we don’t have jet propulsion behind us as we pull up hard on the steering column PULL UP!!! PULL UP!! We are fighters and pilots but we aren’t the plane. We can pull up. We fight the fall because we aren’t meant to go down. We fight the hell because we are meant for heaven. We are meant to rise. Rise to the royalty within.

Why do we shield our eyes when the lights are turned on when we were in the dark room? Or when someone opens the blinds and wakes us from our slumber? We are accustomed to it. We feel comfortable in the cool darkness. Like Bane said “Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!” We don’t really see anyone but the faint bits of ourselves.  We aren’t  concerned about where we’re going because we can’t see where we’re going. We’ve grown comfortable to the solitude. Yet the solitude is what we despise most. We so desperately want to see the light, to see.

We so desperately want to move, to do, to be. Yet it hurts us, disorients our current equilibrium, blinds us with the warm truth. If we are comfortable in the darkness then we have lost the light within us. We must fall occasionally.We must pray. There must be pain or nothing will change. Nothing can be as it was, nor what it is. Becoming is now. It’s choice, it’s breath.

Decisions determine destiny so if I have vision then I’m destined see! The only way to emerge from this pit, this prison in the earth, is to heal. Sometimes it takes breaking our back to reset it where it was supposed to be. We must push ourselves, building our spiritual and physical bodies for the coming climb. We must try. We must fail at times. We must strive forever! Climb! Deshi Basara!

Rise!

Deshi Basara!

We think we are strong without fear but we are weak because we deny the truth. We are afraid to fail. We are afraid to fall. But fear is a state of mind. We can conquer fear. True courage is not lacking fear. True courage is shown when in the face of fear you choose to go forward anyway! You can’t fall if you don’t stand. You can’t fall if you don’t jump. You can’t walk if you don’t stand. You can’t reach the top if you don’t jump. You can’t pull yourself up if you don’t hang on the edge of your comfort zone.

Save your city. Save your family. Save your life. Rise to the light my friend.

Only you can conquer you.

Sponge in hand trying to clean my mind but who can erase?

Suicidal thoughts friending for another taste

Ever willing to provide disgrace

Lord please help me subside my haste

So that I may once again survive distaste

I can’t do this alone please provide a way

Because too many times I fell flat on my face

Pick myself up gotta finish the race

Gotta turkey baste

That means I gotta give thanks

For smacking me down to put me in my place

Being unchaste is like a face full of mace

Blinding and grinding  my soul into paste

 On a sandy foundation,everyday I’m abased

It’s interesting, the day after you hear the words of life

you meet death

After life and death, repent son it’s time for you to resurrect!

Rise up!

I know you think you failed but you only fail if you don’t pick

them eyes up

Come on man rise up!
Nothings impossible
With God on our side
Deshi Basara
Get up son rise!

Out of the Garden

Coming up living in blissful ignorance

I couldn't see past the beauty I was imaging

The trees the flora the fauna

Weather so perfect no snow no sauna

Didn't know glory or dishonor

Never heard of snakes or piranhas

I didn't know hate I didn't know heal

I Didn't know death but knew heaven was for real

Never saw the movie but the law was moving

2 main truths for all I was pursuing

It was locked in my mind that father knew what he was doing

Little did I know that blissfulness was witherin

Because one day wife came to me after a talk with slytherin

She told me to partake of the fruit given by the snake

That it would take me to a state where we could make or break, fake or create, love or hate, procreate and know mistakes.

To fulfill my role I knew it was time to go

Couldn't be without her, she was my side, she was my soul

So on we went from no consequence to full common sense

To see the arguments and the compliments

To understand my own incompetence

To have choice I had to know the bigger picture

Cuz you don't know what you don't know. Go figure

Step 1: Honesty - Be real son

Step 1: Honesty

To be honest
I never thought I'd ever be this honest
Instead of being real I lived dishonest
I didn't believe the promise
I couldn't believe that He would forgive me
I couldn't see the blessings He'd give me
But I wanted Him to forgive me
But I wasn't ready to give me
That was the problem:
I only thought about me
I thought it was a solitary problem
I wasn't hurting anyone else
Just relied on and lied to myself
I could handle this no worries
Trying to do it myself made everything blurry
I had to let Him win
It wasn't a game, it was just sin
Give in and you'll be forgiven
For Christ He is Risen
Will you rise?
To step up you must first learn to kneel
Confession made the truth so real
Step into the meeting and I was no longer alone
Finally found a place that felt like home
So here begins the story of the prodigal son
I'm ready to begin logical. I put down the gun
I'm ready to talk
I'm ready to walk
Lead my way and I promise I'll go
Lead my way and I promise I'll go
No longer on the slippery slope
The way is up and now I have hope