Day 45

So today is going to be a little unconventional. Some of you might know that today is my birthday. I have been blessed by God to be able to wake up everyday for the last 19 years. Every breath I have taken since I was in my mother's womb has been a gift from God and I am truly thankful for everything he has given me. I owe everything I am today to God and the people that he has put into my life. I would have never made it this far without them and without him. I want to start of by thanking my parents for taking me to church every Sunday and doing their job as godly parents. Though I did not always follow what I was taught, the good morals that they taught me have stuck with me and I am doing my best to follow everything. To my brothers (Dwight, Peter, and Jonathan) I love you guys so much and you have made the biggest impact on my life (other than God). I look up to you guys and no matter what you guys do I am able to learn from your success and your failure and I hope that from here on out, I am able to teach you just as you have taught me and I will be able to keep learning from you. I am going to be able to pass on things to your kids and the stuff you have taught me will assist in that. Thank you for sticking with me even when I was annoying and always pestered you because even though I knew you were upset with me, you do not know how good it felt just to be able to spend time with you guys. Thanks again. To my sisters (Michelle, Kim, and Melissa) I love you girls as well and do not know what I would do without you. All of you have impacted my life in some way and I have been able to learn how to treat girls because of the things you have taught me and the examples you have set before me. I cannot thank you girls and guys enough for all the times you have taken me places or bought things for me because I know that I never deserved everything that I received but you still loved me and family can make or break someone's life.  My parents also have been able to provide me with stuff and I am so grateful for that, I do not know how blessed I have been through them as a result of God blessing me through blessing them.  Thank you to all of you. Too my sister's-in-law, Holly and Erin, I have known Holly for almost 11 years now and you have also been a blessing to me even though it may not seem like it, you were the first one I had to figure out how to act around because you have not always been around me and I was able to learn how to treat a member of the family that had not always been there and you and Dwight have given me so much, so I want to say thank you. Erin, I know we have had some differences but I know that you can be a part of this family and though it did not seem like it at first, we can accept people for who they are and we hope that you will continue to contribute to our family and be a blessing unto us and we shall be able to bless you. To my nieces and nephew, we have tons of time to learn and teach each other and I cannot wait to spend time with you guys in the future, I pray for you every night and I know that you are all going to grow up and be special kids. I pray for all my family every night and I am thankful and blessed to have all of you as a part of my life. 

I have been thinking today because I bought the new "Narnia" movie yesterday"Prince Caspian" and I thought of how cool it would be to live in a place like Narnia. Then I thought about it and we live in our own Narnia everyday. We have support from our family (The Pevensies) and Christians around us (Fellow Narnian's). There is a good vs. evil struggle everyday on earth and we fight the battle literally to the death. We have God (Aslan) who if we look for long enough, we will see him and he will guide us and help us win our struggle. All we have to do is step into this new world and we will see everything that is going on and what God has planned. When something good happens and the joy of it fades, we wonder if we will ever get back to that point and as the professor says at the end of the first movie, "I suppose so, but it will probably happen when you least expect it." If we live life everyday and just do our work for God, our blessings will come naturally and things will work themselves out and we will not have to stress. God has blessed us by putting us here and giving us the positions we are in right now to change the world and he is waiting for us to answer the call. We can be deceived by Satan (The White Witch) but as long as we use our support groups and do not wander off on our own, we are able to do more than we could ever imagine and we can literally step into "Narnia." It is time to make the dream world a reality and get back to the way things were when God was the focus of life. 

I hope you all have a great night and I am excited to see what this next year holds. I also want to thank my friends and all my other relatives for getting me to where I am today, but to thank them all would take hours. I want you to know that you ARE greatly appreciated and if you really want me to thank you, ask me what you have done for me and I will tell you exactly what it is you have done.

God bless,

Joseph Robinson

Day 44

Some days I forget how great it feels to live for God and to know that I am working for the betterment of his kingdom. It is refreshing when you are at that point and can see the work he is doing in your life. Let me start off by saying that I am blessed to have the family and the friends that I have and the positions God has put me in are much better than most people.  I know I have said this before, but hold on tight to the ones you truly love because you never know when that opportunity to talk to them will be gone. I have been thinking about when we disappoint God and sin and how we can resist because we are called by him. I have talked about not beating yourself up over sinning but rather moving on and gaining strength from it and I have discussed the never ending love of God and how he will always forgive us. In addition to putting on the armor, we are instructed by him not to rebel and therefore stand firm in the word. We see this when he calls Ezekiel to preach to the Israelites.

Ezekiel 2: 1-10, "He said to me, 'son of man. stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.' As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I hear him speaking to me. He said, ' Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, "this is what the Sovereign Lord says." And whether they listen or fail to listen--for they are a rebellious house--they will know that a prophet has ben among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, they are a rebellious house. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.' Then I looked, and saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe."  Once again we are told not to be afraid of what those around us say when we stand up for God because he is watching over us and his will shall be done. 

I think what I can take from this is that I need to remember that I am a son of God and rebelling is not in my best interest. I must take all that he has given me and put it to good use. Ezekiel goes on to literally eat the scroll because it is what God gives him. I can apply this in a figurative sense in that God will give me the words to speak everyday to people and as long as I rely on him I will not have to be worried about what to do or say. Just because I am around people who are rebellious and follow the ways of the world, I do not have to harden my heart towards God and be a rebel as well. I need to become like Ezekiel and heed all the information and warnings that God sends my way. Confronting myself yet again and saying that I will stand up for what I believe is true and not let myself cower in the face of sinners. Do you ever have those moments where you want to do something for someone or just smile at the stranger walking by but you are unsure of how they will react or what they will say? I struggle with that everyday and I find comfort in this verse when it says "Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house." I should be confident in the Lord and in his awesome power because he will enable me to do the work he has called me to do as long as I step out in faith and follow.  I know some of this seems repetitive but I am trying to drill it into my head so that I do not forget it.

Until I learn to be completely selfless, I will have a hard time reaching out to people, but I am still able to help people who come to me for advice as I can pray with and for them in the Lord and continue to do his work. I know this is my calling and I am answering the call for good.

I am always looking for ways to help people and to connect with people, if you know anyone who would enjoy reading this or might need to get something out of it, please spread the word, I think that something small can lead to change all over, it is just a matter of how we go about things. I continue to pray for all of you and hope you all have a blessed night.

Joseph Robinson

Day 43

I was thinking today and I think I have hit a point where I feel like I am stuck in the mud. I do not believe it is that my faith has hit a wall, but my human nature does not want to let me go any further. Satan is trying to regain control in my life and walking with God seems to want to get harder and harder everyday (or that is what Satan wants me to think). I know that some people come to a point in life where they feel like they have nowhere to go or they are just stuck where they are at. The problem here is that they have everywhere to go and are not really stuck, they are hitting the point in life where they have to make decisions. Some of these might be life-altering, others may be simple and take hardly any energy. When the time comes to make a decision, it has to be an all out effort when the decision is made. As I have said before, there are no half-hearted decisions. One has to believe in themselves and the decisions they make and follow them. If it leads down a bad road, there might be severe consequences but there will probably come another point in which they can make a decision to keep living the way they are or to get help and find a way to make some changes. I think I have come to the point where just getting in the word and growing with God is not enough, it is time to make it a complete lifestyle or just give up completely. I think I want to make it a complete lifestyle, it is going to be hard but I think I am willing to work at it, just as I was willing to make this blog successful for me.  This will ultimately decide my eternity but some choices do not have such a big impact on life. Such as lifting that bottle to your mouth again on the weekend, or taking a hit of that blunt, or what party you are going to end up at and who is watching over you? These are small decisions and I'm not condemning anyone but where are your decisions taking you? and are they beneficial to you? I am not talking about popularity wise, I am talking about in your own heart are you becoming someone you did not ever want to be? or are you tired of who you have been and want to change?

In Luke chapter 5 verses 17-26, it states, "One day as he was teaching the Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.' The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, 'Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, 'Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgive," or to say, "Get up and walk"? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...' he said to the paralyzed man, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.' Immediately he stoop up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." See, this man had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide and God took him in and forgave him of his sins. He even went on to heal the man and pretty much gave him his life back, even praising God on his way home. Talk about a thankful man. See his faith enabled him to do something great and get out of his "mud." He was sick and tired of being where he was at and he wanted something more out of life, so he went and got it. 

In the same way, I feel like the paralytic. I have already had my sins forgiven, this I know but I still cannot walk anywhere because my belief in myself is lacking. I am willing to go but I am unable to let myself go, I guess for fear of where it will take me. I am not so much afraid on a spiritual level, but my human nature wants to hold me back. With the power of God though I can overcome my human nature and leave it in the past. I need to put on the new self and not just try it on but zip it up and glue the zipper so that I cannot take it off. I have to confront myself (in a figurative sense) and tell myself that I am not going to follow my nature anymore. The only way to overcome myself is to not be afraid of it but to control it and let God do the rest. I think I took it all wrong when I posted out of John 1 and verse 5 states, "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." This is applicable to what I am talking about because it means that even though I have the light in me, I still have not understood how to let it shine through me and fill me completely. The darkness still has some pull but it is quickly turning to light and can be eliminated but the choice is mine and I have to make a decision to make a change. I know that confronting yourself can be a scary thing, but I have already started to do it through this blog and I hope that some of you begin to do it as well. 

There is roughly 2 weeks left in the semester and then it is work and Disneyland for me over Christmas break. If you need strength to finish the semester, call on God and see what he can do for you. I think you might be a little surprised. Feel free to contact me via posts or my phone (480-292-1754) and continue to take this journey with me.

Hope you all have a great night and God Bless.

Joseph Robinson

Day 42

I just want everyone to know that I am not bailing on you and I have not given up on where I am headed and most importantly, I have not given up on God. Some circumstances kept me from posting everyday for the last week but I am going to get back on track and I hope you all are still around to follow. As I said in Friday's post, messing up can show one just how much one needs God, even when one thinks they have everything under control. Just when one thinks that they did not make it to their goal, things can take an unexpected change and can see that they did make a difference. Things did not really go as I had expected them to in Phoenix and I believe that is partly my fault, I wanted to do things on my time and not on God's time. I expected things to just change right when I got there and it was not the case. Transformations take time and people do not change overnight. It is possible, but it just does not happen very often. All that can be done is that we can speak wisdom to those we care about and we can guide them, but they might not grasp exactly what you are saying right away. I have been there, over the summer I had someone tell me some stuff and I did not want to believe it because I had other plans, but in the end I knew what was right and eventually came around. When we stop being stubborn and closed-minded, we figure out more than we could ever imagine.

On the topic of Wisdom,1st Kings 4:29-34 is titled "Solomon's Wisdom" and it states, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite -- wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He decribed the plant life, from cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the walls. he also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the other kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom." I think it is awesome that God was able to use a willing servant in Solomon and give him this great wisdom. He was revered as one of the great wise men of his time. It says that kings sent men from all over to listen to his wisdom. Solomon understood so much and God was able to use him to reach people, all they had to do was listen and learn. How many times has someone said something beneficial to you and you have ignored them or decided to just go against them because you wanted to be a rebel?

I think that what I can get out of this is something that I would have never even thought of. I mean people tell me that I am wise sometimes, but for the most part I just follow common sense. But God can use me and give me wisdom to work through others. I might not be the wisest person on earth or even the wisest in America, but if I receive the wisdom that God has for me, that is all I need to get by. You see, wisdom does not only apply to the advice I give, but it applies the the way that I live my own live. Do I make wise or foolish decisions? Build my house on God? or the ways of the world? The choices I make today not only affect me, but they can affect my family, my friends, and possibly even my future wife. I either choose to believe in God  and have faith or I choose to walk away and live life without faith and just accept whatever comes my way. I am not here to condemn anyone or say that you need to change your ways, I am just offering my perspective on life and how it applies to me. Obviously if you know me, then you know that I believe that everyone should know God, but ultimately the choice is yours and I respect your decision. My job is to make sure that you know you have a choice and then answer any questions you might have. If you do not have a relationship with God, that is fine, I am not here to shove religion down your throat, the Bible is what one might call a "self help book" that has good insights and knowledge that is beneficial to life.

I know that people read this, but sometimes I feel like I am just not getting through. Maybe it is just me and I am just not as prepared as I should be, or I am not exactly following what I am saying, but I am doing my best and am going to try and make sure that I spend more time in prayer over this and for the people reading it. Every single person that reads this matters to me and will impact my life in some way. Think about how those around you look up to you and the way you act when you are around them sometimes, we are creatures of habit and if we see other people doing something and we are always around them, there is a good chance that we will start to develop some of those habits sometime down the road. I need to do a better job of guarding my heart and I hope that all of you continue to do the same. I know that God has something in store and I cannot wait for it to be revealed.

Have a blessed night, oh and Christmas is only 24 days away! Remember the THREE, ONE, SIX. John 3:16, that is the reason for the season.

Joseph Robinson