Day 38

Yet another crazy day in my life. I was up at 8 (I know, harsh) and went to sunday school, church, a basketball game, and played football. All in sequence from 9-5. I wore myself out to say the least and definitely needed a little rest before I got up to spend the rest of my night diving into God's word where I could find real rest and then later to study for an exam I have on Tuesday. I can see that staying true to God has been a blessing in my life and I have a feeling it is going to be a blessing in a few more people's lives as this week goes on. You see, this is not all about me, it is about the people reading this as well. The primary focus is for me, but I hope that everyone who reads this is challenged to grow as a result of what I am saying. I am happy that many people are reading this, and I hope you continue to read it because at least I know you are listening. Most of the time, listening is the hardest thing to do because most people do not like to be told how to do things or to accept that they may be wrong or there is a better way to go about doing things. I think that these are some of the reasons as to why we tend to ignore God rather frequently, or we just ramble on so that he has no chance to say anything.

I will say right now, that I am not perfect. Everyone who has read this can attest to that. My struggle with pornography was something that pulled me down for years and forced me to cover up. But now that I have overcome that, it is important to remember the road that I am walking down and answer the life long question of "where do we go from here?" I have dealt with this question in many aspects of my life recently and I found the answer in regards to my Christian walk.  1st John 1:5-10 says, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by truth. But if we walk in the light , as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." Where do we go from here? Well, we STRIVE to be perfect. It is impossible to be completely sinless, Jesus is the only one who lived in a world with sin yet was without sin. Be careful as well, do not believe that you are without sin now that you are a Christian, we are purified but you are still a sinner that has been redeemed. There is no darkness with God so we must continue to live in the light. Satan wants to deceive us and make us believe that we are on equal status with God, but in reality we can never be on his level. We can be in his presence, but to be perfect would mean that we are God. Remember, it is said, "Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked" (Galatians 6:7). Just because we are sinners does not mean that God does not love us, in fact I believe he loves us even more because we have turned from our sinful ways and have chosen to follow him.

I tend to try to be a perfectionist and have a hard time coping with being a Christian and sinning sometimes. I know it is in my nature, but I know how much it hurts God. I believe this verse is eye opening for me because as long as we are walking with him and striving to be our best in him, we are still purified from all our sins. This does not mean go out and sin as much as possible because you are purified, it means that I can still do his work and if I screw up, I still have the forgiveness that was given to me when i first found him. Think about darkness, it is the absence of light, if you are walking with God, the will not be much (if any) darkness in your life. This is due to the fact that God is light and he provides light in our life. I know that as long as I try to do my best to live for him, I cannot be discouraged when I mess up. It will happen because as a human, it is my nature to sin, it is just being able to walk away from sin and overcoming that makes me set apart.

Continue to pray, I will be headed home in less than 40 hours. I am excited to show people how I have changed and hope that the light of God shines through me always. I hope you all have a great night and that you will be blessed.

Joseph Robinson