Get Back Up

Today was a pretty relaxed day but it was rather long and it was very busy. I know that relaxed and busy do not really go together but I played to baseball games so it was relaxed in that sense and busy in that I was gone all day playing baseball. I have had a lot of time to myself this weekend due to the fact that just about everyone went home for the Easter weekend and I am one of the few that is left on campus. I honestly do not know what I would have done today had it not been for baseball. I would have had to spend tons of time with God because I know that without him I probably would have been in a wold of trouble with so much free time. I still found time to stumble but was quick to get back up because I knew better than to be in the state in which I was. It is funny how you can spend your whole life trying not to elevate your status and you just go out and be yourself and people wonder why you are not somewhere else. The thing is that we all have plans and we all have God's plan for our life and he leads us on the Journey that he sees fit for us. We make decisions but he sets those decisions before us and provides us with the opportunity to follow certain roads that will give us experience as well as guide us in our adventure. When we fall down he is right there and his grace is enough for anything that we do. He is almighty, alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, he is all-knowing, and he is the one who provides for all our needs. No one can match him in size, love, power, wisdom, grace, greatness, or any other category you can think of. The God that I serve is the only one who is sufficient for everyone. The key word in there is serve and I need to do a better job in fulfilling that role.

Whenever I struggle I tend to look for verses that will speak to me and give me additional assurance that he is still there for me as long as I continue to work towards him. Feeling like you just can never do right when in reality you do not mess up that much is a hard thing to overcome. It is so much easier to focus on the bad over the good because our conscience is the one that is dominant in our minds and when we mess up we think about it more that when we are successful. In baseball, hitting a home run or even just getting a hit can be one of the best things to do, but the joy of that only lasts a little bit because if you strikeout in the next at bat then all you think about is the strikeout, the home run or hit means nothing in your mind because you struck out and you feel as though you are better than that. The same holds true when it comes to sin, you can spend so much time without sinning but when you do, it sticks with you for a while and it is hard to let go of. We see in Proverbs 24:16, "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity." When you strikeout, you have to just get back up to the plate again and forget about the last time. Just keep fighting and striving for perfection because that is where true happiness lies. As Paul stated, we must fight the good fight and finish the race, do not give up on the calling that has been placed in front of you. You are stronger, you can overcome, and you will be a better person because of it.

"And if you should fall again

Get back up, get back up
Reach out and take my hand
Get back up, get back up
Get back up again

I hope you all had a great day and remember the resurrection, the death is meaningless unless he came back and the good news is that he came back! Enjoy Easter with your families and be thankful for the day which we commemorate what Jesus overcame!

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Provider

One thing I always think about it money, I know that sounds like a bad thing but I do not think in terms of how much I can have or how much I "need." Instead I tend to think of how I am going to pay for certain things and how I am going to get certain things done when I know that they cost money in order to do them. Even when I think I will not have enough, God always finds a way to provide for me, whether I am going to be in debt for a while or not, he will find a way for it to get done and he will provide me with a way out as long as I am not going in way over my head. I just find it hard to trust sometimes because things can look as if there is no way I am going to get them done but then God provides. It is not just with money but it is with health, family, friends, food, and many other things. Whenever I need something, he is always knowing of what I truly need and what is going to truly make me happy and if it is in his plan, then he provides it for me. When I doubt him, I tend to panic and wonder what I am going to do because it seems as if I have am hitting a dead end. As I have said before though, God works in mysterious ways and we could only hope to have a glimpse of the things he sees and the way he does things because he is that great. We will never fully understand how or why things happen but we should be grateful for the things that are given us and for the spectacular things that God does for us.

We see a great example of this in the old testament with the woman the the oil. It is told in 2nd Kings 4:1-7, "The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, 'Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.' Elisha replied to her, 'How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?' 'Your servant has nothing there at all,' she said, 'except a little oil.' Elisha said, 'Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars and as each is filled, put it to one side.' She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son 'Bring me another one.' But he replied, 'There is not a jar left.' Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said 'Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.' " Even in a tight bind with nowhere to go, this lady was provided with something to pay her debts and keep her sons out of slavery. The man was faithful to God and he as well as his family were blessed because of it. Remaining faithful to God has so many benefits that we cannot even imagine how blessed we truly are. Most people think that believers only believe because they are just trying to avoid hell. The truth is that there is so much more to it. Happiness, love, completeness, blessing, truth, understanding, and peace. Those are just a few of the things we have in Christ when we remain faithful and trust in him. It is not all about the rewards because we should not live in hopes of getting a treat for every little good thing we do but we should look to the prize for which we have been called heavenward. Let us remember that 1,976 years ago, the blood of Christ was shed for our sins so that we might live, but 3 days later he rose again.

I'm sure you have seen this or heard it a few times but it is nice to be reminded from time to time. The real reason for this holiday.

I hope you all had an amazing Good Friday and that you are all excited for Easter Sunday! My prayers are with you all, please continue to pray for me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Wandering = Dangerous

I have mentioned that from time to time I let my mind wander and that usually leads me into trouble. No matter how hard I try, I never can seem to escape it but that is a problem that I need to deal with when it comes to asking God for help because I still find myself trying to overcome things on my own. The problem is that I cannot take care of it on my own because I am not Jesus and I am not strong enough to resist the desires of the sinful nature on my own. Whether I am working for Christ or just trying to live a Godly life, I should strive to be as clean as possible when it comes to living life, if I get caught wandering in the middle then I am asking for trouble. It is like in baseball when a runner gets caught in "no mans land" they are caught between two bases in what is known as a pickle, there is no place for safety and they are surrounded on all sides by the opposing team trying to get them out. In the same way, I tend to get caught out in a danger zone without Christ and leave myself vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. This is warned about in the bible as we are told to stand firm and put on the armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil's evil schemes. I have not been doing a good job of this and I find myself in situations that I should never be in because I push the situation on my own until I back myself into a corner and make the wrong decision. By the grace of God, he has bailed me out several times from situations that I should have never been in because he cares for me and has a bigger and better plan for me. He just wants to know when I am ever going to fully listen to him.

Several times throughout the Bible we are told to be careful and to not test the waters with God because we cannot willingly sin because we know that grace will be in effect, we need to control ourselves and try our best to live a life that is pleasing to God. He does not want us on the fence, he wants us to be all in or all out because mediocrity is not good enough. We are reminded of this in Jeremiah 14:10 when it is stated, " This is what the Lord says about his people: 'They greatly love to wander, they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.' " This is a warning that if we wander between God and the world, it will come back to bite us in ways we should never want it to. I have found that there are times when I wander out in the world because like Adam and Eve, you could say that I am curious and I want to know stuff that I do not need to know. I need to remember that if I were supposed to know it or experience it, then God would not speak out against it. There is a reason as to why he has set laws in place and it is not because he wants us to miss out on all the fun or because we have to be good, it is because he knows what is best for us and he made things special for us that others might not ever get to experience but are even more enjoyable and life changing then the ways of this world. It is such a tough concept to grasp but if we can take ahold of it and put it to use, then we should be able to work with God everyday to say no and avoid falling into the things of this world.

I hope you have all had an amazing day and I pray that God continues to bless you. Thank you for sticking with me even when I have not posted and for continuing to read. Please keep me in your prayers and thanks in advance for your prayers.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Stubbornness

I went in today to talk to my advisor and we discussed the possibility of me returning next year but I did mention that I have other schools at the top of my list and am open to just about anything. I have not yet officially changed my major but I am about 95% sure I am switching to some sorts of sports administration/management. I met a new person tonight and have to say that she seems like a very nice girl. Very friendly, easy to talk to, definitely someone I would not mind having around to talk to. Sometimes you meet someone and you just know that they are someone that you would like to get close to and be really good friends with because you can relate to them and you share things that bring you together even when you just met. It is funny how God works and brings people right to you that you would never expect to meet. As I was sitting in XA tonight, I heard "why do we treat the things that easily pass like they will last forever, and why do we treat things that will last for eternity like they are temporary?" I thought about that and said to myself, "why do we live for things in this life when we should be living for things that will carry us into eternity?" I have already touched on this before but I think it goes back to how we tend to live "for the moment" rather than "in the moment." I should be setting goals to achieve that will carry me into eternity instead of just setting goals that will get me to tomorrow because tomorrow is not guaranteed. I keep forgetting that I cannot push things off until tomorrow because tomorrow might not come, my time to shine is now, there are no second chances or do-overs, just here and now. God has made the call, how will we respond?

It was written by Paul in 2nd Timothy 4:3-5, I think I might have used these verses before but here they are again. "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry" I have noticed that I have not done a real good job of representing God because whenever I go to a Chi Alpha related event I just tell people I have stuff to do instead of just telling them I am involved in the Chi Alpha ministry. Occasionally I do mention what I am doing but in general I try to avoid some questions that people ask because I just do not want to spend time answering questions. What if someone did not want to give you the time of day? What would you do? I need to take time and give people the time of day to understand where I am coming from and to understand what I am all about because it might be the only chance they get to hear the love of God. Too long I have sat on the sideline and been stubborn, only to wish I had taken that opportunity when I had the chance because the moment is lost and I do not know whether I will ever get the same opportunity again. Our world is turning from sound doctrine and making everything politically correct or making everything seem like it is fine and all we have to do is worry about the economy or the environment. Sure those are great things to have on your mind but why to we have to believe it is possible to "coexist" the definition of coexist is "to live in peace with each other especially as a matter of policy." Unfortunately we cannot live in peace especially in a matter of policy because we will always disagree which will lead to turmoil and tension throughout our world. One thing that has struck me in the past week and I am sorry if this offends anyone, but I find that people tend to believe that all their friends become angels when they die or they just go to heaven and look down on them but when it comes to themselves they believe they are going to hell. This is sad to see because the reality is that all of our friends do not go to heaven and you do not have to go to hell. I am not saying that everyone I know has had all their friends go to hell (if any) but we have to come to terms that just because a friend died does not mean that they went straight to heaven and that hell does not have to be the place that we choose. We need to stop being so stubborn and accept that we make a choice and so do our friends. We do not live in a perfect world where nothing goes wrong and that God is just an imaginary figure who everyone gets to live with when they die, he is very real and he has a calling for every single one of us.

I am excited to see where God is going to continue to lead me. I hope you all had an awesome day and I know that God is looking out for all of you. I pray that you continue to seek him and his plan for your life.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Unclean

My weekend was a really good one, we were able to take 2 out of the 3 in the series and I hit a home run to lead off the first game which was absolutely amazing, just the confidence booster I needed at the plate. I did notice that I might have given a wrong reference last week I believe I said I was quoting John 14:38 and John 14 only has 31 verses so that was inaccurate. The verse was found in Mark 14:38, I wanted to clarify that so that there was no confusion or someone thinking I was making up scripture. I have had a rough past week and have been doing my best to live for Christ with dignity and honor. It is a tough task sometimes if I have to say so myself and the devil tries to make me feel as though I am not good enough. I tend to give him routes into my daily life that hinder the way I live and cause me to stumble. I cannot help but feel as though I am just going through the motions sometimes and am just living a life that is not necessarily horrible but still is probably not pleasing to God 100% of the time. I need to watch my thoughts and my words more carefully because those tend to be the things that get me into the most trouble. Saying things I do not mean or things that are not good for building others up tends to be a problem for me and when I let my mind wander throughout the day, anything is possible. I have been making progress but am still not where I would like to be and that bothers me because I know he is looking down on me wondering when I am going to get it all together. I can spend my whole life trying to please God but until I actually do it, I have accomplished nothing in my walk. I am not saying you have to do good deeds to please God, but living a life pleasing to him is doing all the things that he has asked of us and that can correlate into what we consider "good" things or "good deeds."

I know I have used this scripture reference before but I was brought back to it tonight after having a song stuck in my head over the past week or so and I thought that it fit perfectly in what was trying to be conveyed to me. Matthew 15:19-20 states, " 'But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man "unclean." For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what makes a man "unclean"; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him "unclean." What Jesus is trying to say here is that we are unclean because of the things that go on inside of our hearts and that correlates to what we do. The physical outside of the body and performing rituals with them do not make us unclean. We are to examine our hearts and make changes so that we do not repeat things over and over which we are not supposed to do. Have you ever wondered why you more than likely to commit the same sin over and over instead of committing a different sin every time you sin? It sort of baffles me that we get deceived in the same way over and over and we "indulge" in sinful nature which we have already experienced and know that it is bad for us. I feel that when I know things have come out of my heart, I am unclean (which I am ) and I feel terrible but the only way to avoid that feeling in the first place is to live a life that is pleasing to God all the time. I have found that living for God 90% of the time can be easy but living for God 100% of the time is rather difficult. For it is easy to push God aside but it is hard to push tangible things aside when they are so easy to access. If I let my thoughts be consumed by Godly things everyday, then I would have an easier time getting through the day but when the mind wanders, anything is possible. God wants us to give 100%, 100% of the time so that we can focus on him and his goals and so that he can work in us and eliminate the possibility of us being dragged into sin.

It is nice to know that Christ is always there in the midst of our troubles and failures and I think the lyrics to "Holy One" by Rush of Fools depicts that pretty well.

Face to the ground, I’m not proud
Of all you must see when you look at me
I tremble at first, as You wash the dirt
The dirt from my feet
And I see my need for thee

CHORUS
You lift me up, Holy One, Holy One
When I but come, you’re enough, you’re enough
You fill me up with your love, with your love
To you I run, Holy One, Holy One

All other noise, fades away
Like all of the fear, when Your voice I hear
You’re beckoning me, to come and just be
A child at Your feet
Seeing my need for thee

CHORUS

Your enough to satisfy
When the world has left me only dry
Enough to save my life
When the world has left me here to die

I hope you all had a great weekend and sorry for the late post as well as the missed post yesterday but I am trying to get my sleep schedule back on and finish up some assignments and whatnot. I am praying for all of you and I ask that you continue to pray for me.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson