Emotionally Drained

This fall put me onto a roller coaster of emotions and I never imagined I would come away from it feeling so confused but I know that God will bring me through it no matter what I face and no matter how uncertain I am about my life or future. He has blessed me in so many ways and has showed me that even though I thought I had screwed up, I was really just at the beginning of a long journey in which you could say I was scared of taking. Losing someone is not easy and losing someone you never knew can be tougher than you would ever imagine. Never being able to meet that person that you thought you would be able to invest your life and knowledge into, is devastating because you are never able to know just how much of an impact you could have had on them. I know that emotions are usually temporary and we can battle through the tough times but sometimes things just seem like they never go right and you are constantly battling up hill. This is how I have felt for most of the last 4 or 5 months and I am ready to make the changes to overcome these feelings. I believe I said it the other night, but when the whole world feels like it is on your shoulders and you feel like everyone is watching, you have to look for a way to overcome that and find the strength necessary to show that in Christ you are able to do more than just the average person.

When I think about the things I want to do and the places I want to go, I feel like I can achieve it but sometimes I just do not know how to overcome what I am facing. Sometimes you have issues that drag on for months and months at a time with no end in sight. I feel like Paul was spot on in 2nd Corinthians 12:7-10 when he said, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Maybe you have a sin that is the "thorn in your flesh" and you just keep asking God to help you overcome it or to bring someone to help you. Christ's answer to us is simply in this verse because his grace is sufficient for us and his power is seen through our weaknesses as we overcome them. It is not about what you are facing, it is how you face it that determines what you are like when you come away from it. Everything we face in life teaches us something whether it is something we did not know or if it is something that we just need to remember, we never go through something without getting something out of it. God will open doors and God will provide and when you are emotionally drained, he will be there to pull you through and give you peace.

Thanks again for reading and I hope to hear from some of you soon (whether through comments or a message, or phone.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Thanksgiving

Tonight's post will be somewhat short and I am guessing that when you read the title you might be thinking, "That was a month ago and Christmas has since passed." But what I am talking about is thanksgiving to the Lord. Showing your gratitude to the one who has given you the opportunity to open the gift of all gifts... eternal life. I think sometimes we get caught up in just remembering the ones who actually do stuff for us (which you should) and we tend to forget about the price that Christ paid for us (except for around Easter) and the gift of Christ from God. We take for granted every little thing that we have in this life but if Christ had not created everything, you would not even been in existence let alone have that one thing.

In 2 Corinthian's 9 Paul talks about tithing but I think his message has to do with more than just tithing. I believe Paul is addressing the church and trying to convey to them the fact that being thankful for what they have and giving back to God for all he has done for them, they are in turn showing the stewardship that God is looking for from us in life and that in turn blesses other people. We see this in verses 12-15, "This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" As you can see, when these people do what God asks of them, Paul is telling them that others will benefit and they will see the glory of God revealed not just among them but amongst others around them. These people are to be obedient to the words and commands of Christ and I may remind you that we also are to be obedient to these same things. I know it is a tough road but perseverance in the spirit is what will make you cool, not giving in to the flesh.

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to read, God has amazing things in store for everyone.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

Doing Good

As I sat around today, I thought about some stuff and began to make decisions. How am I going to live my life and how am I going to strive to be the man that God has called me to be? There is so much to hinder us in this world, as scripture says, "sin that so easily entangles," living a daily life that is wholly devoted to God can be a struggle. One has to decide how to conduct themselves daily and has to plan to stay true to God even when something enticing comes along. Our spirit is lead by God when we come into relationship with him and he gives us the tools necessary to live in a manner that is humbling and thankful for the gift that he has given us. I have been through rough times and I know what it is like to feel like you are not even welcome in a church even though only God and you know what you have been doing. This feeling deep down is how satan tries to tell you that you are not good enough and that you should just quit trying to live the Christian life because you will never be good enough. Do not let these feelings get the best of you because anyone who has overcome those feelings will tell you that God has not and will not give up on you because of his love for you. On earth we can say that we love someone unconditionally but God truly DOES love us unconditionally in that we can do some of the worst things and he will still welcome us with open arms (IF we are genuine with him and repent).

I have posted on spiritual warfare and standing before God on judgement day but taking care of the things you can control when it comes to physical and spiritual matters will be so beneficial to you that you will begin to think you are a different person. When you start making good decisions and stick with them, you will feel like you have this power to be strong even when everyone around you is falling. God empowers us to be strong and if we are diligent, we will feel like we can do all things if God is working through it. When you stand up and say you are sick of failure and sin disgusts you, then you can make the changes necessary to stand up to satan and his schemes and overcome the weight of the world that sits on you every day. Being persistent and asking for strength, while praying, reading, and helping will assist you in becoming a transformed person and allow for the renewing of your mind. I do not know about you, but the promises we have been given from Christ are far more rewarding then the promises of the world for partaking in worldly activities. God rewards those who are faithful just as his son was faithful and obedient to him. We see in 2nd Corinthians 7:10-12, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. Yet at every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are."

Please pray for me as I am struggling a little bit and I am seeking God for his help and know he is sufficient but the prayers of all are greatly appreciated. If anyone needs prayer feel free to ask or if you just want to talk, let me know and I will try to make myself available.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson

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

At Last...

So... It has been quite a long while since I last posted. I was getting ready for bed tonight and something finally hit me. It was not that I was screwing up all the time, it was not that I am falling back into old habits, it's that my personal relationship with God has suffered just about in the last year. I slowly let things start to slide and they never really began to crumble but all the tiny sliding that I thought could not hurt has pushed me to areas I could have never imagined being in. When I started this blog about a year and a half ago, I was looking for God in a big way and found that as long as I was faithful to him, he would in turn be faithful and give me more than I could ever imagine. I do not mean just material things, but joy, peace, understanding and most of all, unconditional love. He has loved me in spite of all that I have done against him and no matter how far I run, he is always right there to catch me. I really want to start posting more not because I feel like I need to post but because I know it has a purpose for me and it really gets me to focus more on who He is rather than who I am and what I can do to be great for Him.

What I meant when I said that my personal relationship with Him has suffered, I meant that even though I pray, spend time in the word, worship, and put to practice His principles, I am not spending the time that I need to, just me and Him. I cannot speak for you, but I think that most people will pray and read the Bible so they can say, "Oh I have a personal relationship because I talk to God and read His word, so he speaks to me and I with him." However, I know that even though I do this, it is not what he wants. It is like talking to a friend everyday by sending a text to ask how they are doing and then if you find out that something is up, you will tell them that you will do what you can to help them. Yes, you are being a friend to them but are you really investing the time to actually sit and talk with them to figure things out WITH them. Anyone can try to solve someone's problems when they hear that they are going through rough times but working with someone through something or ALLOWING them to help you through something is what it means to actually be a friend. God not only wants to hear what we are going through, he also wants to help us through it, IF we allow him. I believe that God is heartbroken and wants His workers to work and if we take time to listen to what He wants, we can help His cause too. I believe God is concerned not just for the well-being of others in the world, but also for His own people. What I mean by this is that He knows the devil is scheming and trying to drag down Christians, and God knows are flesh is weak, so He wants us to look to him to combat whatever evil we may face.

For those of you who feel like maybe you have sinned recently and it is tough to ask forgiveness, read 1st John 1:9, which states, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." I feel that hits the hammer directly on the nail when it comes to purification of sins because of His blood shed for us on calvary. God still has a plan, and God still plans to use you if you so choose. Continue to seek him even when it gets rough because He is ready to walk with you through the storm.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson