Responsibility

I have been thinking about my first we here at work in California and I have to say that I was not really happy at first with what I was given my first day on the job and I was rather bitter about it all day. As the days have progressed though and I knew what was going to be expected of me during my day at work and there were no complaints from me. Next week I will have new tasks and one might even venture to say an "easier job" but it will still be work and I will have certain responsibilities bestowed upon me by my employer and I must not only to it with a good heart but do it to the best of my abilities as well. In the same way, we are given responsibilities with God and in our Christian walk, how we handle ourselves determines how much we grow and how much we can do with the tools we have been given in life. For instance we can only help others if we first have set ourselves straight with God and are striving to do his glory. Sure you can reach some but you will not know the full benefits of what God has in store for what you are doing and what he is doing for others unless you have a firm walk with him. Other times we tend to think we can take on more than we can and we end up getting burned or falling down, this comes along with knowing your limits and what is expected of you. It is not bad to exceed expectations but it is also foolish to do much more than you really can.

A verse that conveys this message is Luke 16:10 which states, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." I think that this is telling us that no matter what role we are playing in working to build His Kingdom, we should understand that when we show what we can handle and have proven we can handle it, God will increase our load. For instance, you might think you are management material when you get an entry-level position but until you show what you can do and people see what you can and cannot handle, then you will be relegated to just doing what you have been given. If the management sees that you are excelling and have great promise, then you might just have a shot at receiving that position that you wanted at first. In the same way with our Christian walks, we cannot just try to jump in and say "God this is what I am ready for and this is where I want to be." We need to realize that our Christian walk is determined by our pace (in a sense) and we should be looking to grow everyday but not try to skip steps along the way. God gives us guidelines that will increase our passion for him and for changing the world but we have to follow his plan and let his Word guide us. I know that God is watching me carefully in certain areas because he has a reason not to trust me at certain times because I have not proved I am worthy of trust in certain areas. However, I am working at pushing myself and showing him that I can be trusted and that I am seeking him with all aspects of my life and I am seeing good benefits from it, but it is just the beginning.

I hope you all had a great day and hopefully some of you are getting back into reading this daily but I am praying for all of you and hope that God is continuing to guide you as you seek him.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Working toward the goal

I have been wondering for months and months about the things that I do that please God in my everyday life and there are plenty of things that reflect God in my life but there are still some areas I need to work on. One thing I have discussed with my girlfriend, Chelsi, is that no matter what, God needs to always be the focus when things are good and when things are bad. Even when we feel like we have it all figured out, God needs to be the center of our relationship because without him we are nothing. We cannot do stuff that is not pleasing to God not just because we feel like we want his blessing and so we should please him, but also because we want to and it is the right thing to do. We have discussed that it is not just enough to go to church every Sunday, whether it is together or separate. We have to be in the word individually and together and we must pray individually as well as together because everything we have between us and everything we are as individuals comes only from him. We do not want to act like we are living for God to please everyone who wonders if we are good bible-believing as well as FOLLOWING Christians. We want to be just as Christ was in reaching out to the world and living a life worthy of the calling he has placed upon our lives. We have individually had pasts that we are not proud of but we have discussed the fact that we need to leave them behind us and work for the glory of God and use our pasts to help people who struggle with similar things (mainly teens). Recognizing that God needs to be the focus not only in a relationship but also individually in your life is a major step but it is just the first step, he actually needs to become the focus 100% of the time. When you have God being the focus and you are living your life for him, you will see the benefits of it, no doubt. Just be careful that you do not think you can do it on your own or that you are bigger than temptation by yourself because that is when you tend to fall and Satan tries to grab ahold of you.

I finally got my devotional book back that I lost last December and I do not remember where I left off but I turned to Day 12 and found this verse which is something that me and Chelsi have discussed from other passages but this one gives pretty clear instructions for us. Ecclesiastes 2:26 states, "To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God." I do not know about you, but I do not want to work my whole life only to find that everything I have ever done was all for nothing and that it was just so someone else could benefit because they lived a life that was pleasing to God. Obviously we want to do things for the benefit of others but when you have been working and storing up, you do not want to have it taken away because you were not faithful or you did not follow what you were supposed to. It is one thing to have something stolen from you, but to have your master take something from you because you were not obedient is enough to make anyone want to please and follow him because they do not want to see all their hard work taken from them. If we just take time to acknowledge God and give him his due, then we do not have anything to worry about, he will take care of us. We cannot expect a huge house with the most expensive cars, but he will take care of our needs because we remained faithful to him, in his timing everything will work out and we need to constantly to remind ourselves of that. We tend to get caught up with what we want and when we want it, but God is trying to tell us to just be patient and to see that he has something for us but we can be stubborn and close our ears because our plan is SO much better. In the end we feel empty and then we turn to God and we are surprised when we see what he has for us. It is not a matter of opinion, it is a fact that God will provide given the circumstances, all he asks for is what he is due, nothing less, nothing more, he demands so little of us when we look at the big picture but we tend to think that he has this giant laundry list of things for us to do. I know that when I turn to God, my life runs at a much easier pace and even though I have not swerved off the path too much recently, I need to make sure that I stay on the straight road that leads to the narrow gate and that I do not deviate from it.

That being said, keep seeking him no matter what and do not be discouraged if you hit a bump in the road because God is ALWAYS there just waiting for you to listen to him. I am praying for all of you and praying that people will start reading again. It killed me everyday that I did not post but for some reason I just could not do it and for that I am sorry but I hope I can get this going again and can expand the reading group even bigger than before. Tell your friends who might be saved or unsaved, if you think that there is a day they REALLY need to read, recommend it to them or send them the day in a message or e-mail but spread the Word, that is all I am doing and if you can, you should do the same.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Back again

So I know it has been over a month since I last posted and in the last post I said I was not done but I got rather busy with finals and trying to get everything done for admission to my new school and I just could not find time to post. A lot has happened in the last month and I will bring some of you up to speed for those of you that do not know what is going on in my life. I am attending North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota next year where I will be majoring in Sports Management and getting a minor in Youth Ministries, I will also be playing on the baseball team there and most likely will be a starter. I met an amazing girl during my last month in Kansas and not only has she become my girlfriend but she has also become my best friend. We talk everyday and in the past few weeks as our relationship has grown, we have begun to make God the center of everything we do and we have changed as well as set boundaries in our relationship to ensure that God's will is being done through us and that we are following his plan for us. We try to have a bible study nightly or at least send verses to each other to read and sort of review so that we can talk about them or at least look at what the other is reading and see what God is speaking to that person. Lastly, I am in California for 5-6 weeks until I head home for a few days to a week before I head back to California (possibly). Busy busy I know but I am trying to get things reorganized so that I can post on a daily basis and continue to receive what God has for me daily instead of just in church or when I feel like I NEED him because I am wavering from the path. This post might be a little out of the ordinary for me and some of you may not agree but I have had this on my mind for almost a month now and feel it is something that should be discussed among believers and non-believers alike.

Today it is my opinion that the Christian world tends to shut out anything that does not tailor to the building up of themselves which is exactly what it needs to be doing, but at the same time, it does not look at the messages the world is trying to convey which can tell us that they are desperately looking for something and are lost. I understand it is rather impossible to listen to any secular music being a Christian because I would say 90% of the time the lyrics are demeaning or have curse words in them and you cannot build yourself and maintain a holy place for God while listening to it but I think that though very much distorted, the secular world can convey good messages you may ask where I am going with this and the song "Dead and Gone" by T.I (featuring Justin Timberlake) is a good example of this. Some of the lyrics are, "I turn my head to the east I dont see nobody by my side

I turn my head to the west still nobody in sight So I turn my head to the north, swallow that pill that they call pride That old me is dead and gone, but the new me will be alright Ohh I've been travelin on this road too long (too long) Just trying to find my way back home (back home)

The old me is dead and gone, dead and gone " and these lyrics in my interpretation are saying that no matter which way we look in today's world, we are usually left standing alone and sometimes we need to just swallow our pride and look to the one who CAN do something for us, obviously this will not be pulled out of the song by those who could not see a reference to God or the writers/performers might not have even noticed it, but the cool thing is that God works in ways that we could never imagine and sometimes he uses people who have influence without them even recognizing what they are doing. We see in Ephesians 4:22-25, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put of falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." No matter how much you want to, until you leave your old ways behind, you cannot move on in the new body and new life. You can ask forgiveness but until you take off that old self and commit to the future and living a pure life, the changes are not evident. Our past will haunt us as long as we let it but when we say no more and move on, God will guide us and move us closer to him with each day and moment that we choose to seek him.

I hope you do not take this the wrong way but I felt that the world is trying to convey a mixed message in it's media but the undertones are there. If somehow we as Christians can relate to the world and show them that we are not all that different, we just choose to follow something that we believe has a lifetime and an eternity of fulfillment, then maybe, just maybe we can find that common ground and bring them in. Trust me when I say from experience that when you look for fulfillment in the world, it is not all that it is cracked up to be and it leaves you unsatisfied in the end, I have a few friends who would concur with me on that as well. But when you seek God and fulfillment in him, nothing brings a better feeling of satisfaction and peace then that, and I have friends who can attest to that as well. I hope you all enjoyed this post and I look forward to posting daily again.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson