Day 28

I want you to know that I did not put this off until last minute tonight, I was very busy today and I prayed to God throughout the day to just guide me and give me strength so that in everything i did I would give him glory. I talked about God with one of my friends for a good 45 minutes today, he is one the student leaders here at K-State Chi Alpha (XA). I am very excited to go home in about a week and a half and see what has changed there and especially my new house! God is doing amazing things and I cannot wait for people in Arizona to see how I have changed since I came here almost 3 months ago! 

The section I read tonight is called "Oaths" and it comes out of Matthew 5:33-37. It is a very simple message to us as not only believers but also as people in general. These verses state, "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But i tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No', 'No' anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Seems fairly simple right? Yes is Yes and No is No. WRONG! Maybe it is just me, but I know that when i am tempted it is easy to say no at first but occasionally your flesh part of me kicks in and reconsiders and sometimes I give in. I am certainly not proud of this, but it is just reality. This applies in all aspects of life, not just sin. Even though a lot of peer pressure leads to sin, I know that it is easy to say no the first time but the second time is a little harder even though I can say it is always no.  Next, I cannot even count how many times I have "promised" God that I would start reading my bible and talking to him everyday or that I would not commit that sin again, but then I end up falling or not doing it anyway. In a way this disappoints God but at the same time he knows that when we say it, we do not genuinely mean it most of the time and he knows we are going to fail at it again. In my experiences, it is easier for me to stop committing that sin and THEN promise to never do it again, because I have already showed that I can live without it and that I am willing to make change. I feel that I can promise God that I will work diligently to be in His word everyday because I have shown that I can do it. I do not think this implies arrogance, it implies commitment based on previous actions. 

I believe that this instruction from the Lord is very important because if you look in the Bible, you will see that this section is lumped together with sections about Murder, Adultery, Divorce, An Eye for an Eye, and Loving Your Enemies. I think that the importance of this passage is that I need to be more committed to the people around me and to God in general. I have shown that I can commit to school, baseball, church, and most of my friends, but it is time to show that I can commit to everything but being careful not to burn myself out. It is about prioritizing in order to fit in all your commitments and not over committing yourself. It is about sticking to an answer whether it be yes or no and making the right decision. Do not let Satan have a say in the choices you make, seek God in everything you do and he will make sure that you are taken care of and he will make your paths straight. In closing, be spirit lead and that is how you know that you are making the right decisions and you will not have to contradict or doubt yourself, because the Spirit is guiding you.

I want to mention one thing and I found it so scary when I saw it tonight and my heart was broken. I was walking by this girl on my way to a meeting and when I walked by she put her head completely down from about 30 feet in front of me until the time that I passed her, I did not even get a chance to smile at her. It made me think, how lost must she be that she was so depressed she could not even look at me, or what was going on? Is our world so hurt that they cannot even stand to look at people sometimes? Another thing that crossed my mind is that maybe she has demons pestering her or she is just filled with so much emptiness that the light that I hope I am giving off was just too much to bear. If any of the cases our true, and i am sure that at least one is, we really need to start reaching out because we are failing miserably to bring others to the Kingdom with us.

Please feel free to post comments or call/text me. I am excited for what God has done and what he will do. I feel that this is only the beginning.... Have a great night!

Joseph Robinson