Before anything else I’d like to share what I mentioned earlier this morning, to the Compassion youth and their parents.
Well, it’s not much, really. I was just being vulnerable with them.
I told them about how I was so proud of the progression on my physique last 2018, and how I was consistent in my workouts, in monitoring the good quality and reasonable quantity of my food intake, and because of that consistency, I was able to lose as much as 20 to 25 pounds, and I kept it all off… Until recently, that is. The reverse holds true – if you’re consistently not caring about the sugar content and the overall junk you shove down your throat, and if you’re consistent in indiscriminate snacking and overloading every meal time, you’re bound to gain weight.
And such was the case with me – no matter how I was still consistent with my working out, well, it couldn’t stop me from the unfortunate fact that I’ve been avoiding to acknowledge until today; Those 20 to 25 pounds I shed? Well, they’re back, just as I’m back to Medium shirts, and apparently I’m back to a freaking 36 waist. I’ve gained significant weight, and I don’t like it.
I then told them, the boys in particular, that my personal computer suddenly conked out one time last August. The display died on me and all of a sudden I started smelling burning rubber and metal. I thought my graphics card was shot, and I tried swapping it out with another card. Then that died too, and I thought maybe it was that card that also had issues. It came to a point that I needed to take the entire tower out for another guy to take a look – and take note, this was during the days that the sun rarely showed itself, if at all, due to all the insane rain we’ve been getting.
We went as far as reformatting, and only got closer to the issue getting solved… and then I googled my symptoms. It was there that I was reminded to check one last thing that we didn’t look at through all this time – the power source. The burning wasn’t from the graphics card after all – no, the PCI-E wire connecting the GPU to the PSU was burned… and that explains the sporadic display, also explains the sudden acceleration of the graphics card out of nowhere. I’ve had to swap out a busted part, and I don’t think I appreciated all the effort it took for us to realize that was the problem.
Finally, I told them about the car, which recently started to have problems. See, it was unusually weak during the usual ascent from my residence to the main city area… and when we were closer to our destination, I started smelling – oh, I don’t know, it smelled like gas.
The diagnosis so far seems to be that the radiator needed some long overdue maintenance – The radiator was so dirty that all the water inside was evaporated, and the excess heat started to burn up the motor oil… which may explain the smelling of gas and probably oil. Thankfully, I was spared an overhaul, because the engine didn’t die on me.. If I pushed it a bit further, I could have easily spent the equivalent of a thousand dollars and an entire month or two without a car. Since then the radiator was removed, cleaned thoroughly, and I was told to keep replacing the water every two days or so – when the water drained is clear enough, then and only then would I fill the radiator with coolant.
And when that coolant is filled, that’s the only time I’m going back to my mechanic to have the thermostat and my brakes checked. I don’t think I liked how I waited this long for me to see this sort of problem happen.
I took all of these unfortunate events – me gaining weight, my PC power supply busted and replaced, and my car in continuous maintenance – as a cue for us to be thankful to Christ. For see, without Christ we’d all see these happenings as they are – unfortunate. However, because of Christ and His finished work, we can continue to give thanks, even in these times, because we know that even if our own plans don’t happen, God has plans for us – and these plans are plans fulfilled and being fulfilled by Christ – for us to prosper and to have a hope.
And it’s Sunday again tomorrow, so here goes.
Last week we wrapped up how we are saved from threats and enemies both domestic and foreign, as elaborated on through Psalms 139 through to 141. I also took the time to introduce the general theme of our main church as we celebrated our anniversary this month of September – that is, for us to seek. I thought this would be a good time for us, therefore, to take a look at the aspects of seeking.
Oh but before that, I introduced a verse that we’d probably keep coming back to, throughout this month. Psalms 34:1-4 goes as follows:
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Technically we’re saying that we praise the Lord, and we lead others to praising Him – why? Because we sought the Lord, and He answered us and delivered us from our fears.
The first aspect of seeking we looked at was that we seek in order for us to learn. We looked at Isaiah 2:1-4, and Dad also quoted Proverbs 16:3 – putting these verses together and analyzing common context we came to the conclusion that seeking isn’t without intention. Merely soaking with the Lord does have its benefits, but when we take the time to actually seek the Lord, let us not be surprised if (1) we find ourselves satisfied, praising the Lord and encouraging others to praise the Lord (Psalm 34:1-4), and, (2) our plans would be established by way of clarification (God’s ways versus our ways), and guidance (God’s paths); At around this time we also took a quick look at Jeremiah 33:2-3 where we saw how we also would receive revelation.
So putting it all together, if we sought the Lord – that is, if we intentionally took our time, being, and efforts to meditate and essentially enjoy Christ and His finished work – our thoughts and plans would be established through clarification, guidance, and revelation.
Let me cut it off here for now. Until the next post that is coming very soon, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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