Battling

I am determined to make my efforts worth the time as I begin to post again so not only am I going to challenge myself to post for consecutive days but the shifts in my lifestyle will hopefully become apparent again as I begin to get back into what God has for me. I am tired of just going through the motions of screwing up and then asking forgiveness and then trying to be spotless but finding myself just making the same mistakes over and over. I have posted on grace before so if you want to rad on that, you can do so later. The purpose of me doing what I am doing is so that people can see what God is doing for me and through me and to hopefully change some lives along the way. I believe that during my high school career and since I have graduated, I can honestly say that there have been 10 or so kids that have died and I do not know what their fate was when they stood before the gate. It kills me because maybe I could have done something but instead I chose to stay quiet. I am not saying that these students were not good kids or that they did not have a relationship with Christ, I am just saying I never took the time to find out and the only person I have to blame is myself. We have been called to spread the word and Christ did all he could in order to change the world so what is stopping us?

I must say that when it comes to worldly desires I can be a sucker sometimes and I do not mean when it comes to physical desires of the body, but the internet, video games, movies, music, or just going out. What I make a priority in my life today will affect who I become tomorrow and will affect what God determines about my life when I stand before him on judgement day. I feel that this is summed up in 2nd Corinthians 5:6-10 which states, "Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." As I stated before, God is going to look at all we do, good and bad. He will not just point out the mistakes in our life but he is going to look at how we corrected those mistakes. There are times in which I wish God would just take me home because I would prefer to be with him then go on living in this body. However, God has different plans and has a purpose for us here on earth and we will be here for as long as it takes us to achieve those goals. Some of us might have a short time and some of us might have a long time. If you look at Christ, he did not have a very long life if you look at it from today's point of view because 33 years is a little under 1/2 of the average life expectancy age today (I believe it's around 78 or so). These verses are very good in explaining how we should live because we should be pleasing to him no matter where we are, whether in body or away from it. I know that I do not always do that and it is something I am working on and I hope you will work on it if it is a struggle for you too.

Right now I am going through the New Testament with my girlfriend and we have been doing so for almost two months now. We read two chapters a day and then text each other our favorite verses and I think I might just take my next day's verses from the chapters we read because they are usually very insightful (just as most of the bible is). God is at work not only in me but also in many others around me. He has blessed me this past semester by providing for me and I was named a co-captain of the NCU Baseball team and will be starting this year for the Rams as a Shortstop and probably a pitcher. If you ask my girlfriend (Chelsi), I told her at the beginning of the summer that I wanted to be one of the captains this year but was just not sure how it would work out with me being a first year player but God has been such a blessing to me and he has blessed her with a good job down in Iowa. We are not perfect by any means but we are trying to seek God and are battling through our own separate struggles but God is using us to build each other up and help each other through adversity and I could not be more thankful for that.

Thank you all for reading and I will continue to challenge myself for my benefit and for yours. Doing all this for the glory of God because he deserves it.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson