A lesson about greed

Summer is pretty much over. I have started one class at MSJC now. If all goes as planned, I will be taking a class at UCR and 5 classes at La Sierra as well. It's going to be a very busy quarter! It'll be a total of 24.5 credits (I think). Really, it won't be quite that bad because 2 of those credits are internship... and I just need to write a paper for that before I'm done. :) I also have some financial stuff to work out. With going to three schools also comes an added amount of financial issues, but God will provide. Today we learned about greed at church. We studied Luke 12:13-21.

Someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But He said to him, "Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?" Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' "Then he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?' "So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

It is important to realize that greed comes in different forms. It isn't one of those things that jumps out at you. It is something that you have to watch carefully for. Greed is also at the center of impurity (Ephesians 4:19). It is even put on the same level (to some extent) as immorality (Ephesians 5:3). We ought not be "reasoning to ourselves." God should be the center of our reasoning. We need to be pursuing things of eternal value. To be rich toward God means that He is the treasure and we are serving Him with all that we are. To do everything as unto the Lord should be our goal!

Back from Colorado

It has been a really long time since I have written anything on here, so I figured I should say something so not everyone thinks that I died or something. I have been in Colorado. It was an amazing trip! God blessed in so many different ways from the check engine light turning off to playing paintball, to being able to surprise my parents with a limo and a night in the Glen Eyrie castle for a night. It was a blast! One of my friends from VA (Stephen) came over today and we went to Knott's Berry Farm. There was practically no lines for the rides! :) We got to do everything we wanted to do plus more. Tomorrow we are going to go jet skiing and surfing (if all goes as planned). It should be fun. I need to hit the sack. More later!

A Sensitive Conscious

Work was fun today. There was a program that I did for one of my school projects that my boss had told me about. I wanted my school project to be useful not just completing an assignment. Today, I actually got to work on it some more and make it work on one of the servers at work. I manually installed it on one of the laptops so that someone can start entering time sheets for the time spent on different projects. I kind of hope that we can sell it if we make it a bit more robust... add reports and stuff to it. After that, I finished testing the website that I had been working on for the last few weeks. It wouldn't publish correctly, but I was able to use command prompt to compile it correctly. :) It was a good learning experience. :) I worked on some linear algebra last night. I need to do a whole lot more on it, but I'm glad that I got started at least. I read 1 Samuel 24 this evening. I was reminded of how important it is to be sensitive to the Spirit. This comes through continual obedience to Him and quick repentance of sin. Take a look at this example of David when Saul was trying to kill him in verses 4-7.

The men of David said to him, "Behold, this is the day of which the LORD said to you, 'Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.'" Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly. It came about afterward that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe. So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD'S anointed." David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.

I know that if that was me, my conscious wouldn't bother me at all. After all, Saul deserves to be killed, so cutting off a piece of his robe is nothing right? Wrong! I am reminded that we are deserving of death, and for Him to choose to do something such as paralyze us would be nothing... and yet He has chosen to give us grace. If He does have us suffer, we are completely deserving of it, His grace is still there... and it is for our good. My conscious really isn't that sensitive. I tend to see things through artificial standards. I justify wrong actions in my mind because "they really deserved a lot more." I need to be a young man full of grace and forgiveness, someone who is sensitive to the still small voice of the Spirit when He corrects me, someone who is quickly obedient to Him when He makes the slightest correction. God, renew in me a sensitive conscious, and help me be obedient!

Strong Confidence

Today was kind of insane... but it was a total blast at the same time. My parent's 30th anniversary is on the 12, but since we will be in Colorado, we wanted to do something now--a surprise! The idea was to have a bunch of friends and family come over and do a potluck kind of surprise party. After thinking a while about ways to get dad and mom out of the house, I decided to make it official and RSVP them for lunch at Claim Jumpers (mom's favorite) for 1 pm... the party was scheduled for 2 pm. I included some cash in there to make sure that they went. I was surprised by how easy it was to get them to go. Not only did they go like I expected... they both dressed up! I couldn't believe it. When they got back, they didn't notice the random cars on the street. :) We had probably 50 people or so if you count everyone. Probably the two that were the most surprising... my sister and her family came down from Northern CA, and one of mom's friends from 28 years ago came. The hadn't seen each other since mom stopped teaching with her. Seeing her reaction when she saw that friend was well worth all the effort that we put into it. Everyone did a fantastic job on the food. Our pastor's wife made a wedding (anniversary) cake that was incredible! I am told that the potatoes were amazing. Grandma Pat always has the best mac & cheese... today was no different (I don't usually like mac & cheese, but hers is awesome). :D Aunt Caren made a great fruit salad in a pretty watermelon bowl that she carved. Some friends from church brought a salad... another one took all the chicken off the bones to make it easy. Everyone went above and beyond for my parents. I can't ever thank them enough. The party wouldn't have been the same without any of them. I uploaded a video here of their first reaction. :)

I read 1 Samuel 23 this evening. Jonathan must have been a man of faith. During the time when his father (Saul) was chasing David, Jonathan went and found David and said... (verse 17)

Thus he said to him, "Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also."

I love the confidence with which Jonathan speaks. He even went as far to say that Saul (his father) knows that David will be king and can't do anything about it even though he is trying. What an awesome example of fearing the Lord rather than men! May God fill us with a strong confidence in Him!