The bible has meaning? For me? Now? Wow.

So, I was reading the bible earlier... (whodathunk?) actually a week or so ago, and these verses popped out at me. Who would have guessed that they'd be applicable ever more so now? Life application starts with repentance and supplication. God help me now as always, keep me in line with you.

Colossians 1:11-12

11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

The Incomparable Christ
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God has given us power to endure through His holy spirit and it's through this power that we are to glorify Him with our lives. I think I need to tap into that power soon, because I'm gonna need His redemptive power to forgive my sins. I have a lot of growing and trimming and keeping in check to do.

Colossians 3:12-15

12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Boy do I need holy love... I'm falling into worldy passions. Lord give me kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Forgive me as I require it. I'm trying for that "perfect bond of unity," but I fall short all too often.

Colossians 3:17

17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Yeah, about that... Thanks God! I need to remember to do everything with You in mind.

Colossians 3:23-25

23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

Doing my work heartily... I need to do that. I'll get plenty of chances to do work heartily now that school's coming up. And I'll be watching out for wrongs to avoid. Lord help me through this year, it's gonna be a real stretch.

Colossians 4:5

5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

Yeah, wisdom... Lord I need some of that too...

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

Oh dear... Lord, I don't want to reject you, I want to be sanctified, but my flesh doesn't really care.

1 Timothy 2:8

8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Ok, so I need to pray. All the time. Every day. Got it. Now if I could just keep it up. Lord, can you help in that area too? What do women need to do? I don't think I'm qualified to interpret that passage. (2:9-15)

1 Timothy 6:11

11 But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

Yeah... I'm gonna flee. Words are powerful things, the utterance of thoughts, and the revealing of emotions. Also, possibly the catalyst for bad habits. We must watch our words, thoughts and emotions carefully, me especially.

Rest in the Lord, and he will give you strength.

Rest in the Lord, O my soul.
Fear not, for the Lord is with you.
Who is it that feeds the sparrows and waters the fields?
Does He not care for His own children all the more?
Rest in the Lord, do not rebel against Him, for He loves you,
more than you can imagine.
He is the ultimate caretaker and caregiver.
Hear His voice, do not harden your heart in disobedience.
"Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

Technology Abstinence?

So, the question has been posed to me.
"Could you spend a month without getting on your computer?"
I haven't updated my blog in several weeks, have I? Isn't that good enough? That's like asking whether I could spend a month without talking to my girlfriend! (Oh shoot... bad example.) It's definitely possible, but certainly difficult. However, both are most likely beneficial.

Now, the question Dad is really asking is if I could spend my time more wisely. You know, I think I could. I want to be wise, but I don't want to work. I would love to be prepared for life without, you know... the preparation. :-/ Not so possible. So instead, I've got to get ready for life. Part of that involves reading books and taking notes and applying them to my life. *sigh* yay, more work. ;-)

It's not so bad, really. It just means I need to structure my life a lot more, and control what I do on the computer. So, I think that I might want to spend one month... er... maybe just two weeks, going through everything on my computer and deleting stuff I don't need. Then, once everything is nice and cleaned up, I'll limit my computer time to an hour of non-productive stuff, excluding direct communication. Other than that, the only time I'll use will be for educational purposes only. Hopefully I'll limit that to less than three hours, starting with one hour a day for a week, then two hours the second week, then three hours a day for the third and fouth. Hmm... can I do this? I don't know.
Ok, so if I'm limiting my computer time to 4 hours a day, what am I gonna do the rest of the time? Well, in about three weeks I'll be going to school, so that will take up another 4 3/4 hours a day. (33.5 hours/wk with classes and homework, IF I spend twice as much time doing homework as I am in class.)

So we've got 8.6 hours so far, then there's 8 hours sleeping, so 16.6 hours, and also an hour and a half for eating (20-30 minutes a meal roughly). That brings us up to 18 hours a day. Now, I think I'll be spending another hour or two a day talking to my girlfriend, so now we're up to 19-20 hours. What am I gonna do with the other 4 hours of my day?

Bum around of course! :-P Just kidding... I know I'll need to spend time with my Creator for at least an hour every day, it'd be great if it were half an hour in the morning and half an hour at night. So now we're up to 20-21 hours. The rest of the time is free time... wow, three hours a day. And then there's work. Great. Hadn't figured that in. That's 25-26 hours a week. Hmm... gotta recalculate everything now.

[one hour later]

Holy Goodness! Thanks OpenOffice Calc.
Wow... I am not gonna have much free time this school year. Ugh. Of course, I'm being a bit generous with my sleeping hours, but honestly... wow. Ok, time to get cracking! :-) Plus, I need a loan for school, and that's not looking too great either. *sigh* What am I gonna do? God, I need some help again. I'll talk to you in the morning, I promise. And I'll be posting some great verses I've found while reading through Paul's letters. I'm in the middle of Hebrews right now, and boy is God great.