Day 3 Keeping On Track

Last night i was reading a book called Expecting to See Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz. In one of the chapters it identified many sins and framed them in such a way I did not normally think to , but it revealed to me so many areas where I lack. I sometimes feel like I am not forgiven until I have actually done something right such as not doing the very thing I am asking to be forgiven of the next opportunity I have to do or not do it. If that were true no one could be saved. When I read this book I realized that I have not ever been able to say that I love the Lord completely
with all my heart, soul, and strength. And there are so many times I have used my time, money, and energy for selfish reasons without any regard for the God who blessed me with them in the first place. So I just asked God to forgive me of these things that were revealed in my life as sin, that I normally do not think of perhaps because they are not as shameful to think about and we are not disgusted by it because everyone does it I know. When I think that I am the only one dealing with a particular sin does my guilt become deepest. But I know now that the devil is not that creative, he uses the same three tactics to draw us away form the Lord. The lust of our eyes, the cravings of our flesh, and the boasting of what we have and do.

This morning was quite a test. It was so hard to get up this morning, but I just cried out to God and put on my spiritual armor and had the will to not get back in bed and read my Bible and pray. I read some more of Mark in chapter 7 specifically and read some other devotionals that were very encouraging. IN the passage where jesus heals the man that is deaf and dumb, it is so interesting that he put his fingers in the man's ears and spit and touched his tongue to heal the guy. After he touches Him then he says Be opened! I want Jesus to touch and speak that over me so that my spiritual ears will be opened to hear his voice and my tongue will be free to praise Him and utter things in spiritual tongues.

At work I told God that I wanted to honor Him with my work and that he would bless the works of my hands as a testimony to others of my relationship with Him. Today was awesome. With God's help I was able to figure out a couple problems with our alarm system and got the okay from my supervisor to move forward with them. I have noticed that as I learn more the harder it is to stay in a curious mindset, so I am actively seeking out opportunities at work to do different things whenever I can. Work is definitely going to be one area I really want to grow in and for God to show me how to minister in the workplace even as a newbie.

On my way home from work I listened to a program from Ravi Zacharias. It is very difficult to follow everything, because he uses such dense language and speaks so profoundly that I can usually only take away one or two things. In this particular program he was discussing the reconciling of the mind with the heart in christian theology. Especially in respect to what is more important. He makes it clear that we need to believe with both the mind and our emotions that God exists and that he loves us, if only one is present it is insufficient, but both have enough evidences to prove his existence. It is problematic when theology does not encompass both aspects. When you focus on only the emotional aspects you get books like Love Wins, or you can get highly intellectual and have little emotion and miss the experiential aspects of God. I only listened to part 1 so, hopefully part 2 will bring it all together in my mind better.

Tonight I went out to a field and praised God until I couldn't feel my hands and then I could not play because I could not even tell if my fingers were pressing down the strings or not so I thought it best to head back home. I have been memorizing through the Navigator's topical memory system. I have seen the verses now for awhile and have commonly carried them with me, but haven't really cemented them in my mind yet. My favorite one today was Phil 2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Also I have been practicing to learn Spanish. I found an online language learning course that is really easy to navigate and start learning fast. It is called livemocha. Check it out if there is a language you have always wanted to learn, but never did. Anyways, it has been a good day overall.