It has been exactly one year since awesomepurpose.com had its first post. Wow! I had hoped to premiere a new layout in time for this special anniversary, but I had some trouble with the coding at the last minute. Moving on…

When I started this website, I had no idea what to expect. I felt led to do it, and I obeyed, and the Lord has blessed me tremendously with this blog. Not only have I been able to share the amazing works of the Lord that I have been witness to, but I have also had the chance to be apart of many discussions between Christians (some I’d like to forget), and I’ve learned a lot from my fellow bloggers.

The greatest reward that any writer could ask for is to know that their writing has somehow touched the lives of the readers. In some small way, I think I have done that!

So what has happened in the past year?

June 12, 2007 - The first layout is premiered, and it was also my first time designing a page using CSS. The original layout was pretty simple, and I quickly grew tired of it.

August 7, 2007 - Version 2.0 is released and the feedback is wonderful! The blog looks much more professional with its new catchy design! Also, I moved from blogger.com to wordpress.com for more functionality. It was a challenge learning the new codes, but it was worth it!

September 11, 2007 - I went public with my deliverance from homosexuality with the article titled, “Coming Out Straight“.

November 8, 2007 - Version 3.0 is released, but is really only a slightly modified Version 2.0.

December 7, 2007 - I discover sitemeter.com, a wonderful little tool that shows me exactly who is coming to my site, among other useful details. Unfortunately, traffic before this was not recorded. Since the day I started using this service I have had 6,876 unique visitors with an average of 27 per day.

January 6, 2008 - I surprised everyone with the beautiful Version 4.0 Wood. It’s quickly named my “favorite layout ever.” I also included Twitter as a side feature for the new look.

February 5, 2008 - I received my first blog award!

Since the beginning of my blog I have had 127 posts, and 370 comments (not including the ones that have been deleted). Not overly impressive, but not bad either for my first year!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who still reads this thing, and to the new comers…I hope you enjoy what you are getting yourself into!

…but apparently this blog must continue! I have gotten some extremely uplifting comments that have made me realize that this blog has been used by God. In addition to the comments I have received, the defining moment for my decision to continue on was when a good friend revealed to me that he was donating the amount of money that I needed to renew my website.

You know who you are, and I am so grateful for this gift, and honored to know you!

My one year blogging anniversary is coming up, and I’ll be celebrating it with the release of my next web-design! I’m excited…again!

Here’s a quick word that I started receiving a minute ago from Holy Spirit. Basically, there is an attack on Christian blogs that is going on in this season. The amount of Christian blogs is growing rapidly, and it is creating a ripple effect around the world. Obviously, this is going to make the devil unhappy, and I believe he is going to continue to try and bring down the many wonderful Christian blogs that are out there.

Stop! Don’t allow him to have the victory. The internet is full of lies, and we have to continue spreading the Truth. I urge all of my readers that have their own blogs to think of new and exciting ways to promote their blog. I have even thought about getting a bumper sticker that simply says, “www.awesomepurpose.com”. Whether you realize it or not, your blog is part of your ministry, and it is under attack. Let’s start to fight back!

I would also encourage Christians to keep their blogs “Holy”. Severely limit the arguments that turn personal, get rid of entries that speak negatively against Christians (unless you know they are in error and you may expose the error in love), and abstain from all forms of evil. I recently saw a few Christian blogs that used Google Ads, and the adds contained pornographic pictures, and links to websites that shouldn’t be on a Christian blog. Please consider whether the few dollars you might make off of those ads is more important than your viewers being exposed to the filth that can damage their perception of you. That’s another thing, your words are strong, and they represent who you are. Keep that in mind when writing, and at the end of your post, ask yourself, “does this bring Glory to the Lord?”.

Behold, a new layout is coming on the internet, and every eye will see!

Alright, maybe not every eye, but I can dream right? I didn’t really plan on doing a new layout for awhile, but today I started playing around with some possible ideas. I was a little scared at first because of how much I liked this layout, and how hard I worked on it. I thought to myself, “how will I ever surpass the beauty that is in what I have come to know as Wood Version 4.0?”

Suddenly, in all my frustration the anointing hit, and I was back in business. It took me a month to do Version 4.0, and this design was done in one day! Not only that, but I can’t stop looking at it! It is far better than anything I could have ever imagined!

Am I being conceited? Absolutely not! I know where my talent comes from, and He is worth every word of praise that comes from my lips.

Pictured above is a sneak preview of Version 5.0, and this is a rare glimpse! I usually don’t reveal the layout until it is posted on the web, but I’m much too excited!

I’m hoping to share the real deal by next week…

Site Stats is a wonderful program that allows you to obtain all kinds of information about the people who are visiting your website. One of the things that I love is that you can see what site they were on before they came to your site (aka the referral). It’s really fun to see what people searched for at google.com to get to my site.

Here are the peculiar google searches that have led people here:

1. How demon’s affect a Christian’s life
2. Why does the devil keep in bondage
3. two tongues with interpretation prayer language
4. praying in tongues for hours
5. What happened to Arthur Walkington Pink
6. How to receive the gift of tongues
7. Carl Thomas good acceptable perfect
8. yokes to be broken prayers
9. how to battle the spirit of addiction

I laughed at “how to receive the gift of tongues”. When you get a pair of shoes do you have to ask for the laces?

Why does the devil keep in bondage? Well, he really doesn’t. People stay in bondage because they can’t understand the FINISHED work on the cross, or they just aren’t ready to be free.

If you plan on praying in tongues for hours, make sure you have plenty of water!

I’m confused about the Carl Thomas one…

To this day: 1671 unique visitors with an average visit of 3 minutes. I guess I need to work on captivating people’s attention for a little longer!

I thought this moment would never come, but I have finally been honored with my very first blog award by fellow blogger, Sicarii. I have won the Thinking Blogger Award…

Frequently, I pray over this blog. I ask for God’s anointing to be on it, and that He will draw in the people that will be blessed by its contents. This website really isn’t about me, but about the amazing and faithful God that I serve. Any thinking on my part, that turns into an article, is only a result of what the Lord has taught me through His Word.

It hasn’t even been a year since God led me to start Awesome Purpose, and I have had so many good things come from it. I’m thankful for all my readers, and I’m extremely thankful for this award. Thank you Sicarii for “thinking” of me!

As with every award, there are some rules governing it:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ image.

With that said, I have decided to honor the following five blogs with this award:

1. Jared at Finite Calls Infinite
2. Trey at treymorgan.net
3. Chris at Rend the Heavens
4. Sidhu, Roberto, Titto, Nick, David, and Jonathan at TWJ Ministries
5. Attacking Midfielder at Out of the Fort

I’m really excited for this one! I have worked really hard on it, and I have taken my time, ensuring that everything is exactly the way I have dreamed it to be. I began working on a new layout about two months ago, and half-way through I got sick of it, and trashed the whole thing. I guess there was a reason for that!

I’m definitely satisfied with this new layout, and it should last for awhile (hopefully). There are still a few designer tweaks I need to make, along with some coding issues that need to be solved, but for the most part, you are viewing the finished results!

Notice the new spot dedicated to twitter? How about the link to my radio station? It’s so fancy isn’t it?

Alright, I’ll shut-up and let you decide for yourselves. Please let me know what you think though. I could really use the boost to my self-esteem:)

I almost forgot…if you notice anything specific that doesn’t look right, or maybe something that isn’t working properly, please let me know. I try to remember everything, but even at my young age, it is difficult!

I guess you can say this is my Christmas present to you all!

Church was great today! Music rocked, sermon rocked, and most importantly, GOD ROCKED!

I never say “rocked”. Anyway, I heard some amazing testimonies of people being healed today. I still haven’t witnessed it for myself, but I love hearing the miracles that God is doing in everyone’s life. It always brings me into a deeper worship for Him.

I have been working on a new layout for my blog. It’s probably my favorite one that I have ever done in all of my history of making web pages. I don’t know when you’ll get to see it, but hopefully soon. I’m thinking the first week of January, but I cant promise anything! One of the things I want to do is organize/rename my categories, and start focusing on certain topics with this blog. As random as I am, I have been feeling like it’s time to get things in order.

I’ve learned a lot the past week, and I have wanted to write many times, but it just wasn’t flowing out of me. Here’s what I have planned for upcoming entry titles:

1. The Post-Tribulation Rapture (I’ve had some exciting new revelations that have shaken my previous “pre-trib” position.)
2. To Judge or Not to Judge? (What does God command us to do?)
3. Reading the Bible (Is it just a book? Why is it so important? I’ll be answering these questions and more!)

Well, that about wraps it up. I want to let you all know that I love you, even if you never comment, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

As honored as I am that my site is finally recognizable to spammers/bots, I don’t appreciate getting an e-mail every two seconds notifying me of a fake comment. For this reason, I have had to do the unthinkable…Captcha.

For those who don’t know what a Captcha is, it’s the irritating jumbled up letters that supposedly make a word. After you guess correctly, you get to post your comment. The cool thing about this Captcha is that it is from a website that uses these jumbled up words to digitize books. So there’s actually a benefit to this annoyance. If you want to know more, or if you want to get one for your own site, visit: http://recaptcha.net

Unfortunately the “subscribe to comments” plugin that I uploaded on wordpress is not working. Users are not being notified when follow-up comments are written.

I’ll have to look into this more, but I encourage you to follow up with your comments the old fashioned way.

I’ll have a better story for you later…In the meantime, what do you think about this?

Hey guys, I’m working on a more meaningful entry, but I wanted to let you know that I installed the Wordpress Plugin: Subscribe to Comments. Since, I’m finally starting to get a few comments, I thought it would be nice for me to keep up with the blogging world. I noticed that pretty much everyone else has this feature on their blog, and it really has helped me to keep track of followup comments when I want to know what responses there are to my comments.

I hope this encourages more of you to talk to me:)

I’m happy to announce version 3.0 of Awesome Purpose! It’s not a complete tranformation, but it is fresh and new, and I love it!

What do you think of it?

I know I’m a little late on the whole fall thing, but it wasn’t until recently that it started to feel like fall to me. Also, I live in Orlando, FL, so as you can imagine, there’s still no sign of autumn. Therefore, I have decided to spruce up my blog a little with some fall accents!

So, what is my “Autumn Purpose” you ask? Let me tell you, grasshopper…

1. I want to somehow figure out a way to make money until my business starts booming, thus, avoiding the many terrible things that can happen to one living on his own in a townhouse in Florida.
2. I really want to start volunteering. I don’t know what it is I want to do yet, but I know I would prefer it to be some kind of mission work for God.
3. I’d like to design a new layout. Not completely transformed, but something to freshen this one up.
4. I want to start going to bed earlier, and waking up earlier. I have been told by God for awhile now that He prefers morning time, and I have been disobedient. Lightning could strike me at any moment, so I really need to discipline myself in this area.
5. I want more people coming to this blog. That means more comments!
6. I’d like to get through some of the books I have been given, so I can get new ones.
7. Lastly, I love Autumn so much, that I want it to last forever. Yes, it is my goal to do this…

I have discovered two awesome websites for all your music needs! The first one, www.slacker.com, is an online radio station, only you get to pick who they play! It’s commercial free, and they rotate through a variety of songs from the people that you enjoy listening to. I have to say, it has turned my praise and worship time upside-down!

The second, www.projectplaylist.com, is a site that you can search for virtually any song and create a playlist for your website, or myspace account. This is great for me when I have a song in my head, and I just need to listen to it real quick!

So, you want to know what I’m listening to? Simply click here to open my playlist in a new window.

Exciting, huh?

As the wild fires in California continue to destroy the land, I begin to wonder if this has anything to do with bible prophecy. The picture below was taken by Amanda Wright who says, “This moment felt very apocalyptic”. More photos can be seen by clicking here.

Being a semi-new, spirit-filled Christian, I always have many questions about things (scripture, theology, etc.). I assume that they are normal questions that a lot of people have, but maybe not everyone asks. I have always been very inquisitve, and because of that, you can call me a knowledge sponge. I don’t always find out every little detail, but I find the answer to the question, and I feel satisfied. Not only do I learn something new everyday, but I also learn how to answer similiar questions for those who ask me.

I had the idea today to start sharing those common questions, and their answers. If you have a better answer, or my answer is wrong, please feel free to add your input.

Here is the first question…

“There are a lot of religions that came before Christianity, and a lot of traditions that Christians stole. How can Christianity be real, if it’s not original?”

Here is the answer…

First, observe John 1:1-3 which states that, “in the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being.” (Amplified Version)

The Word of God was there from the very beginning. That means before Adam and Eve, and it means before Moses (who wrote the first books of the bible). We observe the bible, and follow its instructions. However, if the bible is God’s infallible Word, that must mean that it’s instructions were there from the beginning (before the bible even existed).

It is also important to know that Satan was once an angel, and by being an angel he also knew the Word of God (before it existed on earth). It is safe to say that he knows the scripture better than anyone else on this planet, because he was observing it before it was even known to man! If we know that the devil counterfeits the things of God, does it not make sense that he has been doing it since the beginning? Therefore, we didn’t steal from other religions and spiritual ideas, the other religions were stolen from God!

The bible may have been written after there were already other religions, but the bible is the Word of God, and it has been the Word of God since the beginning!

Christianity may have been birthed after the death of Jesus, but we now know that the fundamentals of our beliefs are the oldest and most original!

Can I get an Amen?

It’s been awhile since I have written. I have been working on version 2.0 of this blog, and now I’m finally done!

I have to say I am very happy with the new layout, and I have had God helping me every step of the way. He is definitely fulfilling His promises!

There are many new features, here are five of them:

1. Contact Form
2. My Testimony
3. About Awesome Purpose
4. Bible Verse of the Day
5. Currently Reading

I really wanted this to be more of a completed website, and also easier to navigate through. I switched over to Wordpress which gave me the ability to do everything I had envisioned for Awesome Purpose.

I look forward to posting entries on a more regular basis, and I’m excited to see this site grow!

What do you think of the new look?