Disowning

Tonight will be one of the quietest, loneliest nights I have been in the dorms in the 6 months I have been at K-State. Everyone has pretty much gone home for Spring Break but because I have a baseball series this weekend, I am staying here until Sunday and so I am alone with temptation knocking at my door. No one is around and it would be rather easy to revert back to my old ways and give in to sin. I am surrounding myself with stuff that will only build me up and reinforce my values and am shutting out anything that could possibly hinder me. I am not ready to slip up and lose a whole night just because nobody was around. I have talked about integrity and true character is what you do when no one else is around. Well tonight I am showing myself who I really am because there is absolutely no one around, its not just my room but pretty much everyone on my floor and so I do not have to worry about anyone bothering me. It is pretty much just me and God here right now and I think I might talk to him for a little while and listen to him because he is readily available even when everyone else is gone. It is so comforting to know that I have a friend here even when everyone else is gone. I have tried to stay spotless but am not the best at being perfect and nobody is so I am not going to let it get me down.

I was thinking tonight about slipping up and what it means every time we do and then I thought of Peter. Being a disciple, Peter was not only a follower but he was a leader and an apprentice to the work Jesus was doing while here on Earth, When Peter was told that he would disown Christ three times, he thought it was never possible and said he would stand by God and Jesus to the death. Jesus even told all the disciples in Mark 14:27, " ' For it is written: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' " What he was referring to was that all of them would fall away but only during the time in which Jesus underwent trial and then we he rose and they saw him, they would have trust in him and do his work again. They did not fully understand why he had to die at the time and even though he tried to explain it, they refused to accept it. What Peter did not know is that you cannot tell God that you are not going to do something, especially when Jesus tells you to your face that you will disown him. I take the same approach when living my daily life because Jesus says that it will not be easy but it will be worth it and that I will probably make mistakes but to try and live the fullest in him. The thing is that I do not want to make mistakes and I do not want to disown him by sinning and turning my back on him briefly while I am doing something I should not be doing. It hurts me more that I sinned and broke God's heart than it does to know that I just did something wrong. The problem is that I should never have to feel bad about hurting God because I should be living for him and not messing up. The problem is that we will fall and we will choose not to talk about him in times when we are afraid, we might even deny him to save our skin like Peter did. The thing is we cannot fully reach the potential that is in us to love God unless we give him everything. Peter eventually learned and was actually crucified upside-down for the purpose of Christ. He understood what it meant to truly love God and got past the initial fear of screwing up by just living solely for the purpose of the cross and for Christ.

The truth is that we have all sinned and fallen short, the question is what will we do to change that? I hope you all have an amazing Friday night and I hope all of you are doing well. Feel free to comment and feel free to contact me if you need prayer of if you just want to talk. I would appreciate hearing from you.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Transformed

It has been cold here in Kansas for the past week or so and I am definitely looking to spending some time with my family in Georgia next week. It is not as if I can pick a given weekend to go home as most kids here can and so being able to see family is a good change of pace. I have one class tomorrow and then I get to play some baseball this weekend and then I get to head out for OKC. It is hard to believe the semester is already half over and we are already inside two months to finals and then I will be ending the year I have spent in the midwest. I am still not sure where I will be going next year but I know that God has complete control and I am letting him just guide me where to go next. He has molded me so much and I am adapting to the life I should be living so it is a little unusual but I am okay with that and am willing to do what it takes to work for the creator of everything. He has humbled me, he has grown in me, he has provided for me, he has forgiven me, and most importantly, he has saved me from roads I would have regretted going down. For a person who has no regrets, that is saying a lot because regrets are things you wish you had never done and so far in my life, I can say that I am okay with everything I have done. That is not to say that everything I have done has been good but there has been a purpose to everything and it has not led to me losing my faith in God and for al of that, I am thankful and glad that I have peace with who I am.

When we are saved, we are told to put off the old self and put on the new self. Seems like a fairly easy thing to understand and do but I think even I have a hard time grasping this concept. I know that I am different but sometimes I revert back to some of the ways of my past which is not supposed to happen if you are doing everything correctly. Jesus makes this pretty simple to understand in Luke chapter 5. He is talking to the disciples in verses 36-39 he states, "He told them this parable, 'No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, "The old is better." '

" What he is trying to say here is why would you ruin something new in order to try and use the old? The point is that the two cannot go together because they do not complement each other, in fact they are exact opposites. In regards to the wine, if you mix the two, the old will fall apart and all will be lost because the new stuff runs out as well and nothing is left to use. You can see why it is imperative that we stick to the decision that we make when we choose to follow Christ because as I have said before, we need to be all in or all out. There is no in between, being in between causes lots of problems and confusions which is why we make a decision to make things right. I think I am beginning to realize this the further I go on and I am making a conscious effort to be completely in love with God.

I just listened to a song for the first time and it definitely spoke to me, it is by Kutless and if you want to look at the lyrics, I am sure you can find them. The song is called "Guiding me Home" and here is the song...

I hope you have all had an amazing day and I hope God is doing great things and you are following his direction for your life. I am continuing to pray for all of you and I hope you are praying for me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Victory

Everyday I am amazed by who God is and what he can do. What he shows us everyday is stuff we can use pretty much right away as long as we recognize what he has done for us or what he has given us. Humility, wisdom, strength, life, and love, all of these are things that he teaches us and builds us up in and we should take notes about what we learn everyday because there is so much to learn that we will never be able to remember if we do not practice it or keep up with what he is teaching us. God has really utilized me in being a servant and doing things for the benefit of others rather than myself in recent weeks and I am beginning to see how surprised people get when I am doing stuff for them. It is truly a blessing to just do things because I want to and not because I want to get something back in return. Sometimes I feel like I am doing things out of the goodness of my heart but deep down, I want something in return. This is selfish and is not something that I should even think about, but being human, it is hard to just accept that I can do something for the good of another person without having them return the favor in some way or another. I remember when I posted in January about cleaning out trucks in Long Beach and how I did not have to do it necessarily even though it was my job because the truck drivers were supposed to clean their own trucks. I said that I never wanted tips but deep down I did want the tips, I just figured if I told them that they did not need to tip, they would do so anyway because it was a win win situation for me. I tell them they do not need to tip and they tip just because I am humble, it was all a ploy to try and make money really and it was wrong. It is funny that we think we are doing things out of the goodness of our heart but there is almost always a catch unless you truly have your heart in what you are doing and you are working for the betterment of those other people.

My intro did not really have much to do with my post today but I had some thoughts on my mind and thought I would just state what they were. Now that I look at the verses I am using, I noticed that I hear rather frequently about how powerful nations are today and who has the most money, or who has the biggest army, who is the most influential, but in the end, none of that matters. We see in Micah 7:16-17 states, "Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the Lord our God and will be afraid of you." What we see here is that in the end, people will have to recognize God as the one true savior and they will be in awe of him because of how great he is. People will realize that they have made the biggest mistake they have ever made because they chose to be apart of the world instead of listening to those who they deemed crazy or foolish for believing in someone who does not exist. We see that they will be in full submission with no words to speak and they will be on the ground before the presence of the Lord because they will be acknowledging the one in which they had rejected for so long. When that day comes, it will not be an "I told you so" moment, but rather an "I wish you had listened" moment. It will be the single greatest day of mourning for those who are not Christians, in the history of the world. It will be the day when God reigns victorious forever and Satan and those who have chosen to reject God will be banished forever to hell. God has made a way to avoid this punishment but the question is "Will you be ready?"

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess sooner or later, I pray that you take the road of sooner because the latter is not going to be a time in which you can celebrate about it. So, keep pressing on and seeking him everyday, I remember all of you in my prayers and if you need anything specific, feel free to ask. I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday night.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Justification

I'm sitting on my bed right now and after thinking for awhile about things that have happened recently, I feel like it is just me and God in everything I do. When I do not let him come with me places though, I am very alone and I struggle. I know that I should not ever go a second without him but sometimes I just get caught up and get sidetracked. This is something I need to work on and I need to be more diligent at working on things that I have set in place. It does me no good to point out areas I need to work on if I am not going to actually do anything about it. You know, if you smell and should take a shower, you more than likely are going to take a shower so that you can be clean and smell good. In the same way, if things are not working out and things are not getting any better, something needs to be done in order to make things change. Sometimes I feel like I am running my race alone with nobody backing me, it seems as if I only have God to hold onto and that is a good thing but in this world my support comes from God and from the people around me. People encourage me but I guess the problem is that I am not open enough when it comes to telling people what are going on. As I write this, I am convicting myself of closing myself off from others and seeing that it is not them who are the problem but I am the one who is not allowing people to help me. I am not telling people what is going on because I feel like it is none of their business. When it comes to salvation and making sure we are straight with God, we need to be as open as possible and not allow ourselves to keep things under wraps. We hurt ourselves because we are not letting people see everything that there is to us, people cannot understand the mystery that is me if I do not allow them to see what is underneath and what Christ is doing as well as what I am doing in response to that.

I think that I found the perfect verse for myself tonight and I am going to write it down and post it next to my bed because I need to be reminded of things more often than I already am. I am going to start making changes that are going to help me throughout the day and I am going to let God in 24/7 100% of the time. In Proverbs 30:12 it is stated, "There are those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth." I am not saying that I am an evil person or my life is filled with garbage but I have not gotten rid of some things that have been on my heart and I have not given them up. They are pulling me down and even though I see myself as completely whole and pure sometimes, deep down there is that stuff lurking and waiting to pull me down again. This is precisely why I am going to make changes in effort to eliminate this stuff from my life. Most coaches will tell you that being well conditioned helps in the final innings/quarter of a game and that is when everyone needs to step up their game. Well for me, its the closing quarter of the first game of the year and I need to step up and make the decisions that are going to close out this portion of my walk with God and is going to allow me to reach new levels. You cant win the prize at the end if you do not work at making adjustments and finding ways to fix things when what you are doing is not working. God is our coach and he is pushing us to the end in hopes that we will find a way to win the game and start bringing fans to the games so that we can make a difference in the community and those around us. If you give up or if you do not find a way to adjust, then you find yourself on the bench and then you might because things just are not working out the way you planned. I hope this never happens and that we all keep pressing toward the prize. Remember, it is not how you view yourself and how good you think you are, but it is all measured under God's standards.

Today has been a good but challenging day and I am excited to see what God has for me coming up. I am working on giving everything over to him but I tend to want to control some things. I know this is at tough thing to do so I am going to keep working and striving to do all that I can for his kingdom. Please continue to pray for me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Signs

Today was a rather awkward day as I went to classes and then spent most of the afternoon doing some homework and killing some time. I had planned to go to the guy's bible study tonight at the Chi Alpha house but ended up falling asleep from 7-10 and missed it. I was rather disappointed about that since I have been playing basketball every week on Monday nights and have missed it every week and now that the season is over, I was going to go. God used me in this past weekend to show me that people do respect you when you choose to stand by your beliefs and they will see that there really is something to who you are rather than you just being a part of the world. Even when we feel like we do not want to be somewhere, God is teaching us something as long as we keep our eyes open and look for the way in which he is trying to explain certain things to us. I learned over this past summer that things do not always go according to planned and God will teach you that there is more than just what you have planned, but what he has planned. Our experiences everyday shape who we are and at times can shake us to the core so that we realize what we are doing and what we need to do in order to stay on track. We cannot always expect things to go smoothly because life is not easy and neither is being a Christian. God did not design the world so that persecution of the church would prevail, he designed it to be his perfect creation (which it is) but as humans, we have defiled it and made it detestable in his sight. This is why God put into effect the plan of salvation and he made promises that will be sustained, the thing is that we do not know when these will come into play.

God warns us in the Bible that times will change and that advances will be made in the world. He also shows us that he has chosen people who will be the center of the end times and they will not be uprooted. The times we live in point to Amos chapter 9 verses 13-15 which state, " 'The days are coming.' declares the Lord, 'When the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,' says the Lord your God." If ever a warning to the middle east in the crisis they face, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and anyone else who wants to come against Israel should read Amos because they might save themselves some trouble. God has already re-established Israel and if you look at verse 15 which talks about him planting them in their own land, never to be uprooted, these countries would see that rising up against a nation in which God has blessed and is watching over, is not a good strategy for them. Israel is nestled in probably the most dangerous place in the world, being a lone nation virtually surrounded by enemies, but God is watching over the nation and waiting for the right time in which to impose judgement across the land. I believe that looking at these verses and comparing them to other scripture, we are seeing that the end is imminent because God has seen enough. As world wide numbers begin to increase in many categories (sex, drugs, violence, and power/money), we are seeing that poverty is increasing, the church is being persecuted and Christ is being rejected as a valid basis for Christianity. This is an indication that our world is headed for troubling times and as Christians we need to heed the warnings and take action to make sure that we are ready and that many others are ready as well. Of course we can only speculate because the day or the hour is unknown but in a religion that is based on faith and the coming of a savior, we should be willing to bet that his return is imminent and that he will call us home soon.

I have gained an appreciation of what pastors do every week to prepare sermons and whatnot because it takes much time and thinking. I post everyday and sometimes what I post on is addressed in church weeks later or even days later and it is encouraging to hear what pastors have to say about topics that I have posted on because it shows me what I am missing and shows me exactly what God is trying to convey to me. I hope that you all had a great day and are looking forward to another day in which God provides and that you should live to the fullest. Continue to pray and seek his word as well as his calling for your life.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Key

Today I heard one of the most humble men I have ever seen speak in church and it was a great experience. It seems hard to appreciate what people do for you and puts into perspective what Jesus did for us on calvary when you meet someone who gave so much of himself (literally) so that we could have freedom in this country and so that we could fight for what we believe in. Even though he has never been appreciated for his efforts by the people of the country he served in and many Americans feel we fought a war that was not ours to fight, Dave Roever stands by what he and his fellow soldiers did in Vietnam and is proud that he could fight for the freedom of a country even though they did not necessarily appreciate what was done over there. I can imagine that it is how Christ feels after he sacrificed himself for us and yet people just ignore the price he paid and the freedom they have because of him. Dave is a walking testament to the grace of God and shows people that in spite of tragedy, people can continue to love and serve him because they know that there is a reason as to why they are still here and they have a job to do while they are here. I am not saying that you have to experience a tragedy in order to be great but God uses people who have gone through a lot in order that they can reach those who feel like their is no hope and that nobody in the Christian church can relate to them. Reggie Dabbs said it best when he stated it seems like all of the superheroes in hollywood and comic books experience tragedy at first and then they realize their potential and he then asked the question "Is Hollywood trying to tell us that from great tragedy can come a great hero?" I like that because it shows us that we can overcome and that even under terrible circumstances, we can find peace and can find a way to move on. Now the superhero idea stretches it a little bit but in the Christian view, we can find Christ and move on past the hardships we face.

We see in Isaiah 33:5-6 that there are keys to being successful and overcoming the tough times that we face. We can overcome adversity through the power of Christ and we can be strong even when everything looks as if it is lost. It states, "The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure" I have talked about praising the Lord and this is affirmed in this verse in the first sentence and it speaks of his judgement and justice that he will bring upon everyone who has ever lived. Isaiah tells us that he is the foundation and we should not stray from that because he provides us with salvation and wisdom which is abundant in him. He also mentions the fear of the Lord which I have also posted on because it is known that if we fear God and have faith in him then we more than likely will not stray from his path because we know that he is just and he will bring judgement on us. Christians being educated in this know that they do not want to be punished for their time that they have spent on earth because they have not been serving and been in relation with the one who created them and sent his only son to die for them. The key obviously is asking forgiveness and accept Christ as Lord and Savior but these instructions from Isaiah are for continuous living and for overcoming hardships and tragedy. We know that there is hope and we know that we have a mighty God but sometimes we forget where to turn and we want to figure things out on our own but God is always there and that is why Isaiah tells us that, "he will be the foundation for your times." I believe this is exactly what we need to hear at this day in age because in the times of our day, we face a world that is falling apart quickly and God needs to be the basis of how we live.

I am continuing to pray for all of you and hope that you are all doing well, please refer your friends to read this if they need encouragement or if they are struggling in their faith because I believe many people can benefit from this. If you need anything, you know how to contact me and I hope that you will continue to pray for me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson