moving up the totem pole...

[Christ_empowered]

...not that status is everything, lol. Its just...I've spent my whole life at bottom of the totem pole, before Jesus intervened. Its suffocating, really.

Now, I hear that people "don't respect me," but they're not MESSING WITH ME (screaming caps because I used to be the target of all kinds of nonsense). That's a blessing.

The way I see it, I only came to repentance 18 months ago. I now have the opportunity to build a decent reputation, NT style. Get a degree, get a job; be godly, be good. Basic stuff. In a couple years, I'll be a law abiding, hopefully tax paying citizen. And a Born Again Christian man. Good stuff.

 

[reba]

Heb_12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

[His_nee (Jeff)]

Colossians 2:2

"5 For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ [that leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].

6 As you have therefore received Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.

7 Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him, fixed and founded in Him], being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving."

 

[for_his_glory]

Heb_12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

I don't think I could add anything more, except keep on keeping on Christ_empowered and never look back.