Good morning (Joseph)

Good morning brothers how is everyone this morning? I am fired up and ready to ride. We had a great midweek last night and talked abotu how we are all sinner and we all fall short of the Glory but through confession and prayer God will give us mercy. Today is payday for me and I need to be on my guard. I am going to take my contribution first and put it aside. I have to pay some bills and then I am going to give the rest to my mom so that we can buy Max some school clothes. I read an awesome scripture this morning in Hosea 14:9. This really impacted me because it shows me that if I have wisdom and understanding in what and why I do things then I can walk confidently with God. I love all of you and I pray that all of you has a great day. I do not have to work tomorrow so I will talk to you all on Monday. Love ya and God bless.

Joseph

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Loving your brothers... (from Adam)

Hi brothers!,

I wanted to take some time this morning to share a little of my quiet time with you. I had some "knee-time" [get it knee-time(hahaha)] in other words my prayer time this morning, and had to get off to work. I am reading thru scripture about loving your brother.

1 John 2: 9-10
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

Like Rhett was talking about on this last Sunday how we need to not have any grievence towards our brother. If we do than according to scripture we are still living in darkness and cannot have the love of God in us. We would really need to search our hearts and look for any kind of slanderous thoughts, jealousy, malice, deceipt, envy, anger... all the things that are evil but sometimes hidden deep within our hearts behind self-justified "feelings" that we dismiss. If we search ourselves then, having the heart of a disciple, we submit to God and let our grievences come out in confession to our brothers.

1 John 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

I'm just talking about what Dave always speaks of, and that being REAL with one another, and not taking any one of us for granted. I love you brothers and if you need anything please don't hesitate to call me and we will keep instep with the spirit together.

Love your brother in Christ: Adam G.

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Wednesday, July 27th

Another Day, another quiet time. Today was an extremely tough day. Challenging at work, to say the least, and I became a little depressed by all that happened. But I am known to say "if God closses a door, he opens a window" and my wife echoed that this evening as I told her my frustrating story. Very well. So be it. I still have a job to go to tomorrow, so I am grateful for that. So I have done a little digging on things, prayed, and studied out this.

shrewd - adj.

• Characterized by keen awareness, sharp intelligence, and often a sense of the practical.
• Disposed to artful and cunning practices; tricky.
• Sharp; penetrating: a shrewd wind.

Honestly, I had a completely different understanding of what shrewd meant. What prompted this study was the thought of these scriptures:

Psalm 18:26
To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

2 Samuel 22:27 (this one I stumbled across)
To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.

Matthew 10:11-16
"Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Luke 16:1-12
Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'

"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

"'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'

"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'"

'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied.

"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'

"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

"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. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

I had understood it that God wants me to be a shrewd businessman. I don't think I have been very good at that, at least not at my current job. I thought being a shrewd businessman meant that I had to be a jerk, basically - evil, mean, bad, and nasty. So, after the unfortunate meeting I had this afternoon, I decided that's what needed to happen. I became an instant jerk to the customers, completely opposite of what I had been before. I now see that I am wrong on both accounts, and am glad I discovered this now, so that I can repent properly. Worldly sorrow vs. Godly sorrow. I definately want Godly sorrow. I have been contacted by a number of companies this last few weeks wanting to hire me, but I just feel very comfortable at my current job, and honestly don't want or desire or feel any kind of need for a change in employment. I would prefer to stay here until I graduate school. I really like the people and feel that God has a plan for me here. I just need to make the adjustment to being shrewd, instead of being a push-over or dominating. The place in between is where I need to be, that's what I see that is commanded in the bible. Like money, not let it rule my life. Use it, don't abuse it. Be shrewd for my employer. These are things very attainable for me. Pray for a radical change for me. Johnny out.

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Tuesday, July 26th

Well, here I am again with my entry. I find with doing this blog comes all sorts of thoughts and feelings about it. One is the thought "WOW, I am going to be held accountable for my quiet times." Then another thought is "wow, I an GOING to be held accountable for my quiet times." But, as I have now done this for, I guess about two weeks now, I have seen another thing come into play. I am having some really DEEP quiet times. I am really getting a lot out of them. If there is anyone out there reading this, you know - great, let me know. If not, well I am still getting a lot out of this for myself, and I think that is probably the best thing for me and my relationship with God, and that is what really matters.

Anyway, on to what I learned today.

Contempt. Con·tempt. noun. meaning:

• The feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn.
• The state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace.
• Open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.

There is so much more that I could have "bold-de-sized" (that is a johnny-ism) in there, but I thought I would stop before the whole thing was high-lighted. I saw this word and thought "how have I done this to God?" And then this scripture came to mind:

Matthew 25:31-46
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

So my thought is this... what I have done to any of my friends, co-workers, brothers and sisters in the church, and family - whether it be an attitude of "well, gosh, I knew that, you must be stupid for not knowing that," or anything of the like, that's something I will have to answer to God about when I knock on his door. AND, it goes further. What about those people who I see on the street, homeless? Broken down car on the side of the road? Whatever the situation may be, if there is any attitude about it, I need to repent and get that out of my character. Sometimes, going to dictionary.com can be so convicting to see the TRUE meaning of words. So, in conclusion, whatever I do to someone who isn't wearing a white robe, sandals, long beard (A-LA-SISTINE CHAPEL), well, I might as well be. That's how God looks at it. I got this all from a defination, how about that.

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Monday, July 25th

What a day!! So many things going on, I start a new class tomorrow, my wife and son are sick, and my mother-in-law is in the hospital. I could be boggled down with life's problems, but I truly believe things will work for the greater good. What that may be, I don't know, and really, is it my job to predict the future? Is it my job to decide what is best for God and his ways? Anyway, I digress. My quiet time was good. Here is a scripture I looked at:

Hebrews 2:9-10
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Continuing on from my previous post, salvation is made perfect in suffering. What a thought. God is love. "God is good. God is great. Thank you for our food. Amen." God seems to be a lot of things. But in Hebrews, it says salvation is perfect through suffering. Which made me think of a scripture to follow up to this thought.

Hebrews 12:1-11
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Is discipline a form of suffering? Maybe for some. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and she became pregnant, David went through a form of discipline when God brought down judgment on him and took away the child. Did David suffer? I would think so. I mean, he ended up fasting for days on end when the child was sick. When the child finally passed away, David decided that God's decision would not be overturned and he returned back to his life an usual. Well, very good. That's all I have for now. Let me know your thoughts.

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