Robert

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Path of the Wicked

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:26:28 -0800

Yesterday some of my middle school guys and I began Romans for our mostly-weekly small group gathering. When I read the Bible, I spend a bit of time around each line, making sure I understand it on the surface before moving on. It's very easy the way most Bibles are written to simple read the words and not internalize any meaning from them. Anyway, as I read and try to follow along, I wait for something strange to jump out at me. Usually it's a very odd wording, or something that the author repeats over and over again. In this case, it happens to be an incredibly long list of things wicked men do. After a pretty wordy paragraph on homosexuality, Paul adds....

Romans 1:28-31
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Paul lists off at least 22 forms of wicked things. My personal favorite is in the middle of all these acts, it clearly wasn't enough, so the people invented NEW ways of doing evil that didn't even exist yet. It's interesting that a lot of the things on this list are things we do occasionally. Greed, disobeying parents, senselessness, envy.... But clearly Paul pants a picture of a people that are just... so far off the deep end it's depressing. As we (our small group) were going through this passage, it's interesting to note that this whole cacophony of evil begins ever so simply. If you wonder how a people could possible fall so far into depravity, you only need to look a few paragraph up....

Romans 1:21
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Even though they knew and understood God, they never glorified him or gave him thanks. That's it....

It doesn't say they cursed him, they ran away from him, it doesn't even really say they ignored him. All it really says is that they never gave him thanks or glory. That was all it took to allow their hearts to be filled with wickedness.

When we glorify God and give him thanks for the many blessings in our lives, we keep our eyes fixed forward, and it's a lot easier to run the race when you're looking in the right direction.

My life be like...

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:59:12 -0700

Yay for GRITS!

So the three of you that still check this site out are probably wondering, "why the heck isn't Rob updating his blog?!" Well the short answer is that I've been busy lately. When ever I change something major in my life, it always takes me a little while to get back 'into the groove' again. Selling cars has been a huge life change for me, and I've been able to hold onto a lot of things. I've gotten to spend time with some of my amazing friends, had a pretty good string of reading my Bible every day, and had a lot of fun at Church. Unfortunately, the blog has been suffering big time.

Time to wrestle that area back into my routine. The new job is going awesome! I have discovered that I really love selling as a profession. The schedule is a little tough, but aside from that, I can't complain. So if anyone wants to come see me, feel free. By the way, if anyone you know wants to buy a Honda and you send them to me, I can put $200 in your pocket! :-)

And now to enjoy my night off.

My weekend...

Tue, 20 May 2008 07:57:32 -0700

Proverbs 17:9
He who covers over an offense promotes love,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

One of the things I have to get used to with the new schedule is the random string of days off. This week for example, I had Sunday and Monday off from work, thus this is my weekend. The nice thing is that my good friends the McCart's are usually around the house and Kelly and Jennica are staying with them for a few weeks. It makes it easy to see my friends during the week.

Yesterday I went golfing with Phillip and I learned that I may never forget how to ride a bike, but I sure as heck can't remember how to swing a club. Time for some practice. Tennis today was much better though.

Saturday was my first day on the floor and I sold my first car. Lets home this is the first of many. Back to work for the next 5 days tomorrow!!

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:58:05 -0700

Psalm 14:1-5
1 The fool [a] says in his heart,
"There is no God."
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.

3 All have turned aside,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.

4 Will evildoers never learn--
those who devour my people as men eat bread
and who do not call on the LORD ?

5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread,
for God is present in the company of the righteous.

You know, the more I know Jesus, the easier it is to live my life and be positive. Those of you who know me know that I am rarely down about anything. That wasn't always the case. I use to be insecure, unsure of myself, and very withdrawn. I call it middle school. In high school I became much more outgoing, but still struggled with life in general. It wasn't until I put my faith in Jesus that I understood what joy was like in His presence.

Trying something new

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:17:55 -0700

So, my spiritual life recently has been majorly slacking. I'm going to try something new and we'll see how it works out. I'm going to try to post at least one verse (that I read that day) on my blog every day to make sure I'm reading my bible and taking the steps I need to protect myself and grow in Christ. This is public permission for all my friends to get on my case if I go more than a day without doing it. I'm going to try it for a week and see what happens....

Psalm 71:17-18
Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your might to all who are to come.

On a complete side note, why the heck don't I read the Bible more often? It's seriously the best freaking book I've ever read and I always get something positive out of it.

You know...

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:05:20 -0700

I've noticed most of my titles tend to be open ended with a lot of periods after them. Any one else?

So, there's absolutely no point to this post. Truly without agenda other than to say that it's been a few days and it's time to update this thing. Life is pretty fantastic at the moment. I have an amazing group of middle school guys that I love to hang out with. I just started a new job that I am pretty sure will be enjoyable for me, and Jesus continues to pour into my life and teach me things on a daily basis.

It feels really good to be busy again although the trade off is NOT having time to spend with friends like I use to be able to do. My schedule is such that I get random days off with no consistency and have to work very long days. It also has been interesting from moving to a person that was very broke but had tons of time, to someone who now has precious little time and (hopefully) a fair amount of money. I need to re-evaluate my sacrifices and how I budget my resources.

Why I can't work from home.

Thu, 08 May 2008 05:05:19 -0700

So I have had two days off from the dealership and I'm taking these days to finish up on my training modules online. They are supposed to take 3ish weeks and I'm going to knock these suckers out so I can start selling cars ASAP. I'm basically working full time from home these two days and I've realized I will probably never make a living doing this because...

There is now always something more important than dishes or laundry
I can now eat something when ever I'm hungry without depositing cash into a machine
I apparently don't shower unless I'm going out in public somewhere
When people call me I'm convinced I have time to answer the phone and talk
I can now take naps
Strange people come by my house to check oil, cut grass, look at land, read meters, or look into my windows
There's nothing good on TV
Something tells me I'm not as productive...

It's about to get ca-razy!!

Sat, 03 May 2008 10:31:51 -0700

Don't you hate people that hyphenate words like morons? Things like Bla-dow!, Cha-ching, or ca-razy? I do.

So, starting Monday I'll be working 50-60+ hours a week. It's going to be a tough schedule. 9AM-9PM on many days. I don't expect to see a lot of my friends on a regular basis but with a job comes additional resources so the days I have available I fully intend to take advantage of. I can't even tell you how excited I am to be working again. As much fun as it is to lounge around the house, I really hate it deep down. As lazy as I am, I absolutely thrive on being productive and working hard. I have a very weird personality...

Finally....

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:21:31 -0700

After 6 months of unemployment and over three months of failed job hunts, I now have a job. I'll be selling cars at Honda of Concord so if anyone needs a vehicle, please come see me! :-)

On a side note, this means that I won't be moving out of Charlotte. Yay!

The success Pyramid

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:23:09 -0700

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

The saddest thing I can think of is a Christian that stuffs themselves with theology and fails to live up the great commission. A life in Christ is bleak if you just coast through. This verse really sticks out for me. I picture that stupid nutrition pyramid from grade school, with faith at the bottom and love at the top (except the pyramid is upside down because we are increasing as we move up). I think many of us get caught up in the faith or knowledge part and never struggle to move on to the higher forms. But we need all of these 8 traits to reach our Christ potential.

So where are you at right now? Do you struggle with each of these 8 areas? Are you working on increasing each trait from faith to love? Let's all work on being effective and productive in Christ.

Jesus will sneak up on you!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:45:39 -0700

So, my best friend Kelly and I were talking about how we met the other day. We've been friends for maybe 7 months now, and I was trying to remember exactly how we got to this place. It went something like this...

Kelly and I met at out High School event called Pulse. I remember meeting her and a visiting student pastor named JD at the same time. We talked for maybe an hour and that was it. The next week, our mutual friend Jeremy and I were sitting in service and he pointed her out. Honestly, I forgot who he was even talking about until I saw her face. "Ohhh! That Kelly" Yeah, I'm awesome like that.

So after service we caught her walking out and talked a bit. Elevation was hosting a prayer experience for the volunteers that night so we all decided to go out to lunch and then head back to the church.

Keep in mind, this is only the second time I ever met this girl...

So yeah, I can't tell you what we talked about, nor can I tell you what was going through my mind. I know that I looked back on this picture and couldn't believe it was the second time I had met this girl. "No way, that had to happen after we had known each other a while...."

Apparently not.

It suddenly became clear to me that something pretty significant was happening between us that we were totally unaware of. Now, for us to look back at how we became friends seems impossibly too quick.

All too often we pray, beg, and even demand that God works in our lives in a mighty way. I know that I am going through a time in my life where I am expecting God to fulfill the calling he has placed on me and I have been specifically looking at what he is doing in my life, and yet I totally missed all this when it was occurring. The whole point is that just because we don't see God doing anything doesn't mean the pieces of the puzzle aren't coming together beyond what we can perceive. It also doesn't mean that God isn't working on another puzzle all together.

Job pt. 3

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:41:37 -0700

If you read chapters 1 & 2, you should get into chapter 3 and do a spiritual "what the heck?". That's right, Job becomes a poem. What, you didn't notice? Maybe you were too focused on the first verse of chapter 3...

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job 3:1

Yeah, that's right. After seven days of silence and support from his friends, he opened his dumb mouth and cursed his birth. Now, this is more than just Job saying he wished he didn't have to go through this pain. Job is connected to God in an intimate way. I can't say if the book of Psalms predates Job but....

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139:13-14

God created Job and did so on purpose. For Job to curse the day of his birth is tantamount to Job telling God that He didn't know what He was doing. In other words, Job starts to show his arrogance and the attitude that he knows more than God.

I'll save you the long bits but most of the rest of Job goes like this...

Job's Friends: You must be a sinner. Look at your suffering. God would only do this to a horrible person. (translation, we are judging you although we have no idea what you may have done nor do we have any evidence to support these claims)

Job: I am perfect and undeserving of any punishment. I would tell God how wrong He is but God would just abuse his power and not listen to me any way. I didn't sin, I'm a perfect human being. (translation, I am the greatest thing since sliced bread and God's a mean kid)

Hmm, totally not the Job I remember hearing about. I would suggest you go through and read it if you haven't recently. The end of the story resolved with Job repenting of his sins and realizing that God is truly wonderful and his strength. What I find most interesting about the 40 some chapters in long..... LONG verbose prose that just never seems to go anywhere or stop talking and seems to make me painfully aware of my ADD is that it is how everyone talks. You just don't find this kind of stuff elsewhere in the Bible.

What I mean by this is Job and his friends are all apparently talkative people. Chapter 40 is the appearance of the Lord who speaks out of the storm and guess what.... talks in the same manner as Job and his friends. I find it interesting that God meets them on their terms and in a way that speaks to their hearts. Yup, God may not talk like this anywhere else in the Bible, but he talks like this to the people who need to hear like this. In short, God will speak to you in a unique way tailored to the person he has created you to be. Amen for that!!!

Job pt. 2

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:25:15 -0700

(On a total side note, when you start a multi-part blog, finish them all at once so you don't feel like you can't blog until you finish the thing you don't want to get around to....)

Part 1

So, we get to chapter 2.

For starters, Satan is up to his old tricks again, asking God to remove the blessing of good health from Job. I do want to point out that Satan needs God's permission before he can harm Job. Many people seem to think that there is this crazy battle and that on a bad day, Satan gets the upper hand. That just isn't true. God is in total control of everything, even Job's adversary.

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. Job 2:7-8 NIV

Umm, oww! I don't think I can actually imagine the pain involved in that statement. But what does our boy Job do?

His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!" He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:9-10

That's our boy! Even in the face of terrible pain and his wife telling him to give up and die, he stuck to the promise of his Lord. Notice the last sentence. This is the second and last time this phrase appears in Job.

Chapter 2 wraps up with a final story of Job's friends coming to encourage him. What they find is so horrible they can do nothing but show their distress for their friend and sit with him for 7 days and nights in silence. Here's a good lesson about keeping our mouths shut some times. Unfortunately, like myself, they don't....

The blogging funk...

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:04:22 -0700

I'm going to warn you all now this will probably turn into a huge cry fest. Umm.... deal with it?

So I've been in a huge funk recently. I have no idea where to go with any of this but the last 5 months have clearly been taking a huge toll on me. Long story short, God placed in my heart a vision to dedicate my life to ministry. Now, I realize I'm too young and too inexperienced to carry it out, but has that ever stopped God before? So armed with a vision and God's promise, I left my job and began to pursue the calling he has placed on my life.

Now it's 5 months later and I still don't have a job, and I'm still struggling to even gain any traction in my quest. Every step forward that I have taken has dissolved around me and I'm faced with the very real possibility of total, humiliating failure. Today has been especially rough. I have no idea how I'm going to come up with bills for next month, and every job that I've tried to get in the last 5 months has been met with one roadblock after another. For a while it was easy to just tell myself that God clearly wanted me to stay focused on the vision for my life, but that is getting harder and harder to tell myself.

And yet, I'm not the least bit upset with any of my circumstances. God is wonderful and has always provided. I have met some amazing people and been mentored by some amazing Christians. I have learned more about my own ability to put faith in Jesus and trust in Him than I thought was possible. I am learning to not trust in myself but that everything I do must find strength in Jesus. I wouldn't trade the last 5 months for anything in the world. If my Lord could hang on a cross for me than I can deal with what ever comes my way in the next month or two.

So if you are reading this feel free to pray for me. I need my next steps.

Job pt. 1

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:37:50 -0700

I now realize that so much of my "knowledge" stems from the things I learned before I was a Christian. I remember the first time I learned that Christmas, Easter, even Sunday were all pagan holidays that Christians adopted. I always thought we knew when Jesus was born, when he triumphed over the grave. Then I found out that those are they days we "celebrate" the things we know happened. The story I always heard about Jonah was the first 3 chapters. I didn't know there was a 4th chapter until a few months ago. Turns out Jonah was a bitter jerk. He wasn't the guy I was told about.

Now, I'm reading Job. Wow! Is this every not the story I thought it was. Job is a phenomenal book and there are literally dozens of things that come out of it, and none of them were what I thought they'd be. The story I always heard of Job is all in the first chapter. Why no one every brought up chapter 2-42 I can't say. I want to spend a while bringing up some things I noticed while reading Job over the next few days. Today's installment,

Chapter 1:

I read this chapter and I know there are a million things going on here that I am not smart enough to put into context. When I read a sentence that stands out and think to myself "that's weird, why is it worded like that?" is usually means there's a significance, I'm just not equipped to understand it. What I do know is Job is a wonderful man who has been very clearly blessed with God's favor. God is proud of his servant to the point where he presents Job to Satan.

"Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." Job 1:8

We all know what happens next. Satan suggests that Job is only such a great guy because of all the wonderful things God has blessed him with. So God allows Satan to get into Job's life. And boy does he ever. Job is literally faced with a maelstrom of events. Four messengers come and tell him that all his wealth and all his family are gone, and what does Job do? He worships God. His love wasn't based on God's blessings but on God being God. This is the Job we all learned about in Sunday school isn't it? Then it all kinda falls apart...

...and I took the one less traveled...

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:39:51 -0700

There are many paths to a faith in Jesus Christ. Some grow up in church and begin a relationship at a very early age. Some repent of their sins in college, and some recognize the emptiness they've carried around for 40+ years can only be filled with Jesus. Depending on your story, your walk in faith will be characterized with different struggles. Some "career Christians" do everything they can just to not get complacent because it's hard to know what you've got if you've always had it. In contrast, the drug addict that spent 10 years living on the street knows exactly what life is like without Jesus and probably doesn't take it for granted. Instead, they have to deal with the daily temptations a life of sin etched deep into their soul that Jesus can and will heal, but it takes time.

I was 21 when I took my first step forward in Christ. I had been a Christian for two years and was sick and tired of squandering the gift of mercy that had been placed before me. My story is much like the drug addict depicted above. My joy in Christ stems from knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, what life without Jesus felt like and feeling grateful and blessed on a daily basis. I will never go back and I wouldn't trade my circumstance for anything in the world.

The point of this is to say, what ever your story, know the strengths you gain from your situation and celebrate them first and foremost. God knew what He was doing and you are not a mistake. You have a unique perspective because of your life and that is on purpose. But also know your weakness. Know the pitfalls of your situation and be deliberate in those areas.

Crazy crazy crazy....

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:15:48 -0700

To follow up on Fridays blog, this Friday I'll be in Danville, Va and next week I'm going to Kershaw, SC (yes, it's actually a town). I feel like all I do any more is drive and I deeply miss when gas was $1.25 a gallon. I remember the first time I put $20 in my Cadillac and I was so mad...

Life seems to be absolutely flying by since Christmas. I'm not sure where all the time has gone but I can't believe it's almost April. I also can't believe that in a little over 6 weeks I'll be turning 26. Growing up, I never understood why adults didn't look forward to their birthdays, but I understand now.

Kelly and I had a phenomenal time hanging out with Phillip and Anita this past week and we are both very excited to be spending time with Larry and Kelly Hubatka this week. I am planning to steal some time away to play with their 4 awesome girls!! I'm hoping that with Easter past, things will slow down a bit and we can all catch our breaths.

Anyway, nothing deep or spiritual this time by. Just felt like explaining why life has been a bit nuts and I haven't been able to steal much time to myself for deep thought. I am about to rip into Visioneering and I'm sure that will spawn all kinds of creativity. Until then...