Weekend

Today was a good day and I had a good discussion with my friend. I talked to him about some stuff that went on this week and we seemed to agree on things I need to do as well as things we discussed which is applicable to all people. I have seen the benefits of being in the word everyday and have noticed that even my behavior is a lot different. I know that people have noticed and I do not know if they are pushing me away or if I just feel like they are but it seems as if I have become distant from some people and they do not view me like they used to. I am sure that is a good thing in the sense that I am living a life representative of what I believe but tat the same time it is kind of hard to grasp it. I know that God is always there for me though, so I do not have to worry about it. I have had a better rein on my tongue recently as I have not said as many derogatory things to people around me in recent days but there is still even more room for improvement. I am headed off to the real bible belt tomorrow as I will be in Springfield, Missouri. I wish I could go to James River Assembly of God on Sunday but I do not think it will be possible as I will not be driving and we will be staying in Branson, about 30 miles away from Springfield. This is not really a post but more of an update.

I will not be posting tomorrow or Sunday as I will be on the road and more than likely will not have time. I will be guarding my heart though and letting God guide me in everything I do. John 14:38 states, "Watch and pray so that you do not fall into sin. The sprit is willing, but the body is weak." That is one that is sticking with me and I will probably have it in my mind as temptation will be all over. Holding to the promises of God and the promises I have made him will only strengthen me and I am excited to see where he will lead me.

I hope you all had a good day and I ask that you continue to pray for me as I am praying for you.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Promise

Well, I took my test today and did not do as well as I would have like, but I did to better than I did the last time and actually improved my grade a little instead of digging a bigger hole. There is still time to salvage the grade and make the semester a pretty good one. I fell down again today but I picked myself back up and reminded myself of the promises God has made as well as the ones that I have made and am trying to keep. I cannot let myself stay on the floor when I fall because then I sit there in my sin and have self pity. Getting up and moving on while asking for forgiveness, is a much better decision and reassures me that I am stronger than sin and I have a God who is willing to guide me and fight with me until the end. See, he will fight to the end no matter what, who we choose to fight with is a whole other story. The struggles we face are not ones that we face on our own and God has promised to watch over us and pick us up. He has given us an awesome chance to show him why we were created and what we can give back to him in return for giving us such a great opportunity to live. When God brought the flood it was because he was not pleased with the direction in which the world was going. They had turned their backs on him and he could no longer stand it. He still had some who were faithful to him and he saw it fitting that he spare them and let them begin life all over again but he set forth guidelines and a new covenant which is still upheld today. Let me say this, with the way our world is living right now, let us be thankful that God has promised not to destroy the earth again until the end times of the world.

For those of you that do not know what I am talking about, I am referring to Noah in Genesis 9:4-6. Here we pick up right after Noah got off the ark with the animals and his family and God is speaking to him. The verses state, "I will demand an accounting from ever animal. And each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.' Then God said to noah and to his sons with him, 'I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you -- the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you -- every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.' " We are assured that we are safe and now that atonement has come, we have open access to the Lord so that we can live a life pleasing to him and . We are pretty much told that there is a penalty for murder in that man was made in God's image and if a man is killed, his blood must be shed as a result. We should feel privileged to be loved by a God who has promised to let us live here as long as we naturally live and he will not intervene in the sense that he will not kill all of us off. Though he has wrath, he seems to use it sparingly because his grace is so great and he has blessed us. I was telling a friend the other day that because of Romans 3:23, none of us deserve the grace of God but he has extended us a gift that we choose to accept or we do not. God is willing to take a chance on us even when he knows that some will reject him. Jesus went on the cross knowing that people would reject him but that does not change the fact that he died for them. The promise of life through the Father is one that will stand forever and I do not ever want to lose sight of that. I hope that you will extend this message to your friends, saved or unsaved, we need to be reminded of this from time to time because it really puts things into perspective.

Thanks to all of you who are reading everyday or at least trying and for those who can only read sparingly, stick with it and do not give up. Some of you may only get to read this and that may be the only glimpse of God you get. I encourage you to take advantage of this and continue to work towards his kingdom.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Purpose

Today has been a very long day and tomorrow does not seem to be much shorter. I have tons to do over the next week and I have a few tests which I need to study for. I know that I am not as prepared as I should be for my test tomorrow but I think I am prepared enough to do better than I did on the last test (we can only hope). I walked out of a class with no intentions of having deep thinking while walking back to the dorm but as I was walking back it seemed as if God had hit me with a door and told me to open my eyes. I have been told that I think on a very intellectual level, people even refute things I say with arguments that have no validity because they cannot stand to be wrong and there are times when my logic is just great. I have decided that Athletic Training is more than likely no longer what I am to do in life. I think my mind can be better stimulated and be put to better use than in the medical field. I am not saying that the medical field is too simple, but it is a lot of memorizing things and just duplicating things that have been done in the past. I am interested in dynamic things that are going to stimulate my thinking on a critical level that will help me express my own ideas based on training I have received. I am leaning toward sports management/administration and possibly becoming a player's agent down the road. This involves law, writing contracts and the such and I think it would be something that I would love to do. I think I planned everything out on my own just a little too quickly and God was and is still showing me what I am good at and the direction that he wants me to go. I have considered bible school and just going the pastor route but it is very expensive and I am not sure that it is what I am meant to do 100% of the time as a career. I am still looking at the part-time stuff and think that is definitely for me so we will see where that leads.

The reason I say that i may have jumped the gun on the career choice is that I was kind of unsure when I came whether I wanted the medical or business side of sports and because I had pretty much been invited to join athletic training right off the bat, I figured I would give it a shot. I love the training room, I love the fact I am around people but I just do not think that medicine is for me. In Proverbs 19:21 it is stated, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." I think that I had been thinking about athletic training since high school and it seemed rather interesting but I have found that I prefer to think for myself and to help people more in the emotional and life sense rather than in just the medical sense. I like helping people succeed and giving them ideas, I love discussing things and working to get things that I find worthwhile. I think that we will go to any length to achieve or get something that we really want and if we apply that in the right aspects of life, we will not only help ourselves but we will help others as well. For example, when I started this blog, I had no idea who was going to read and I did not know if anyone would read. It started out as something I wanted to do for myself to show myself I could be in the word but God had bigger plans and his plans prevailed. He is trying to teach me through this but it is up to me to keep applying the things he is teaching me and I am getting better at that. He has humbled me and showed me that if i put him first, he will take care of me. Yesterday I woke up to find that my phone was dead as I had plugged my charger in wrong and I figured I had slept through my lab because I had gone to bed late, however, I plugged my phone in the right way and looked at the time which was 7:01 meaning I had woken up approximately one minute after my alarm had been set for. I spent an hour or so the night before sending a message to a friend I care about more than I ever thought I could and I poured my heart into them and God took care of me the next morning. Coincidence you might say? possibly, but God can also be responsible for the little things in life that we take for granted. All I am saying is do not limit yourself and think you can only do a certain thing. One thing I have learned is that a characteristic of an athletic trainer is the ability to adapt and as Christians and people, we have to learn to adapt in all aspects because we never know what is going to come at us next. It is a great feeling to know that God is watching over us though.

I hope everyone had a great day and I am praying for all of you. I know that the pressures of life can seem like a lot everyday but seek God and trust that he will pull you through. He will give you strength and help you through the day because he cares. Please continue to pray for me and have a great night.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

No Topic

So today I am not going to actually make a legitimate post but I wanted to at least post something to let everyone know that I was thinking about the blog and am still trying to grow. It was a long day with lots of unexpected things and I even had to try and throw in some studying while figuring out how I am going to get things done over the next few days. I did have some good conversations (one with a friend and one with my mom) about God and really stimulated my mind just as much as I would have if I had been in the word. I am still going to pray and spend time with God because he deserves my time even when I am busy so do not worry about that. Yesterday I spoke on speaking up and not being afraid to just do what God has laid on your heart and let me tell you that it is one of the best feelings in the world to just do something you feel you are supposed to do and no matter how much doubt you seem to have when you are preparing and speaking to someone, God will take care of the situation as you do the things that he is asking you to do. Sometimes you get an unexpected outcome and you see that people are actually grateful that you took the time to explain things even when it seemed like they did not want to hear it. When we work collectively in Christ and with Christ, he will make sure it plays out the way it was intended, good and bad. Of course it is not always as easy as I have made it seem because sometimes people will lash out at you and they will become uncomfortable or even agitated around you, they might even push you away.

Just remember that God knows the plans he has for you and he has plans to prosper you. He will show you the way and guide you through this journey called life. Do not be afraid to step out in faith because when your faith is strong then you can show that you are strong. Trust in him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. We cannot do it on our own and nothing in this life will be enough to satisfy the emptiness we feel when we are separated from him. Humans are in fact human and they commit acts that are human and therefore they are unable to be trusted 100%. We will be let down on earth but the one place we can look to without being let down is to heaven and to God because he is always loving of us and on us. He will be our rock and our salvation. He is the beginning and the end and he is always and forever, he cannot be moved and he is our strong tower. Let God take control, do not be afraid to wait. If you have any questions, feel free to ask/discuss.

I hope you are praying for me as I am praying for you and I hope that God is guiding you and leading you in your everyday walk. I hope you all had a great day and are prepared for another day that God will hopefully give us.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Speaking Up

Today was a great day, very productive and I was able to learn quite a bit in the training room. God is so awesome even when it seems like you do not know what to do. He will give you peace when you are restless and he will guide you to everything that you need. I have learned that when you try to take things into your own hands, you find that things do not always work out how you were planning. You can try profusely and do everything that you think is right to achieve something but if it is not meant to be then there is nothing that you can do about it. You can give everything to a person and they might end up not being very appreciative of you or they might not want the same things you want. Opportunities come and go and sometimes we need to embrace them even when people tell us it is not a big deal or they change their mind after saying something. When someone gives you the opportunity, it is not always best to ask questions, sometimes you need to take the floor and run with it because there will be plenty of time to ask questions later. If we it back and let life pass us by and we only strive to live the perfect life, then what have we lived for? We have been commissioned to preach the gospel and we need to do just that and stop making excuses for not doing it. The world is lost and dying and we are just sitting back letting it happen when we hold the key to THE Kingdom.

When Paul preached he was persecuted and people sometimes had a hard time believing him, and other times he was just completely opposed. While visiting Corinth in Acts 18, he was opposed by the people and he fled the synagogue telling them that their blood was on their hands because he had done his job. God had bigger and better plans for the people and for Paul. We see in verses 9-11, "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: 'Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city' So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God" When we face opposition, God does not want us to turn and cower but instead he wants us to confront the problem and trust him. He will take care of everything and empower us so that we can speak his word with confidence and do the work which he has called us to do. If you are afraid of what your friends will think, then you probably do not have the right friends because if you try to speak to them and they choose not to believe then you can still be friends but if they become irritated with you and push you away, then you know that they truly do not respect you and your lifestyle and probably should not be your friends. You might say well then how can a Christian not respect the lifestyle of another person, are we not told to love our neighbor as ourselves? The answer is that you can love someone and be tolerant of their lifestyle but you do not have to agree with the way they live. You can still be respectful and not agree with the way someone lives, you do not have to constantly nag them about the way they live and tell them it is the wrong way to live. Do not be afraid to speak up and let people know where you stand so that they know your decisions and how you are choosing to live your life, if they do not respect that, then they probably should not be your friend. God is with us no matter what and he will guide and protect us no matter what the circumstances are. Keep relying on him and we will come through for you.

I hope you all had an amazing day and that you are all seeking out God in your life. I am still praying for all of you and I hope that you are praying for me. If you need anything feel free to ask and if you need prayer then feel free to ask as well. Have a great night.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Be Careful

Well, this weekend was a rather boring one but I think I got a lot of stuff accomplished so I am happy about that. We were unable to play our series this weekend due to the amount of snow that fell but that is okay because God had some stuff to show me and I am going to listen. On friday I was with a friend as we do a little bible study and we had been reading out of Romans but I felt that James was a better course for the day and so we went on reading James we had a great discussion and I will come back to James later. I have finally begun to apply some more things that I have talked about on here and I have started making notes of bible verses in order to remind me throughout the day were my help comes from and whose will I am following. I have also tried to be more patient and hold my tongue rather than saying stuff that might not necessarily be bad but is not really pleasing to God. Church was good for me today not because I had not been in a while but because God really needed me to hear some things that I had posted on and still had not applied and it really caught my attention. Sometimes we become stagnant and God finds ways to help us along as long as we recognize what he is doing. He speaks directly to us through others so that he can grab our attention and tell us that we need to wake up. I feel that this week is going to be really busy as long as I play my cards right and actually study for some upcoming tests and go to everything that is on my schedule. It is amazing what we can get accomplished when we are actually completing things that are worth out while. God will make sure you have time to do things that are necessities for you to do while you are on Earth as long as you remain faithful to him and keep your focus on the things that are going to help you grow.

Tonight's message at church really spoke to me because it is something that I have heard before and understood but I did not completely grasp it. I do not think it was the main point of the message because the message was dealing with The armor of God and the side note was the reason as to why we needed to put on the armor. The first verse was John 8:44 and here we see Jesus speaking to the "children of the devil" and he states, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning , not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." You may be asking what this has to do with being careful and why would we want to read something that is being spoken to those who are considered "children of the devil?" Well, this is a warning for us showing us that Satan tries to deceive us no matter what, he is known to lie so we should not be surprised when he lies to us or to others in order to try to pull them in. We need the helmet of salvation to protect our minds from these lies and that is why we are told to put on the armor with all of its components so that we can stand firm. What lies you may ask? Well how about that sin is okay? You can bend the rules this way and you will still be a good christian, God does not have what you want, live my way and I'll give you everything, Christians have no fun, look at what everyone else is doing, they are not doing any harm to society or themselves. There are so many deceiving things that Satan tries to say and so we need to be careful so as not to be hindered in our thinking by him. The next verse was Revelation 12:9 which states, "The great dragon was hurled down -- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to earth, and his angels with him." The key phrase in there is "Who leads the whole world astray," people wonder how I can serve a God who finds people undeserving of his love which is actually not a true statement anyway but I find that following a God who I have to have complete faith in seems like a better idea than following Satan without even knowing it or knowing it and not even caring. just because they think that God must hate them or that it is just easier not to follow someone by faith. Question is, does it not take faith to believe in Satan? Because if God is not real then Satan more than likely is not real because then even the Bible would have some truth (gasp!). For people who say they do not care that they are going to hell, I think they really do but that have been led so far astray by Satan that they have been deceived to the point of just not caring because they feel that they have no hope left, good news there is hope in Christ but it just needs to be explained.

Along the lines of all of this, James 1:19 is a good example of what we need to do so that we are not deceived and so that we are doing what God has asked of us. It says, "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." Understanding God's plan and being careful takes patience so we need to listen for the voice of God and what he has for us. Satan will be revealed if you are listening to God and his schemes will not work on you. Let your mind be a place in which you can be free to listen, but listen to who is speaking and process everything that is said so you can know who it is coming from and allow the guidance of God to direct you. Deception is Satan's favorite game which is why he is the father of it, God will not deceive you. If you think God is deceiving you, that is really Satan deceiving you. Make sense?

I hope you all had a great day and a great weekend, hard to believe we are already a quarter of the way through the calendar year. Time flies when you are having fun, just make sure it is the fun which will build you up. Please pray for me during this week as I will be praying for all of you.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson