The Makings of a Man

Man in his beginnings is but the dust of the Earth.
He is easily blown about by any wind.
Dis-persed, dis-connected, dis-astrous.
He cannot be set upon any path,
Because he is the substance that makes up the paths fit only for men to tread upon.
He is lost in the world, scattered by the slightest breeze, and dissolved by a simple rain.
Yet there is hope for him still.
There is a wind, however, that will change the state of man.
God in His infinite grace, and amazing delicacy takes this gathering of particles,
Brings them into order,
And breathes into them...life.
With this done, man can begin his journey.
Now this once useless conglomeration of dirt has a purpose, has a path, and a reason for existing.
So let him live for his Purpose.
Let him walk on the Path paved with gold.
And let his Reason for existing be the reason he will not quit till back to the dust he returns.

Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day, without Him I would fall.
When I am sad to Him I go, no other one can cheer me so;
When I am sad, He makes me glad, He's my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, My Friend in trials sore;
I go to Him for blessings, and He gives them o'er and o'er.
He sends the sunshine and the rain, He sends the harvest's golden grain.
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain, He's my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, And true to Him I'll be;
Oh, how could I this Friend deny, when He's so true to me?
Following Him, I know I'm right, He wathces o'er me day and night;
Following Him by day and night, He's my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better friend;
I trust Him now, I'll trust Him when Life's fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a Friend; Beautiful life that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend.

Lessons from David

After re-reading 1st and 2nd Samuel I come to this awesome story that I had forgotten about. 2 Samuel chapter 9. It's the story of David and Mephibosheth.
David asks one of his servants to find him anyone left of the house of Jonathan so that he may show kindness to them. What's so interesting about that is the fact that the house of Jonathan were the decendents of Saul, so technically by natural lineage they would have been the "rightful" heirs to the throne of Israel. Since David was the God appointed heir he took the throne after god dealt with all of his enemies. But there was the one guy, named Mephibosheth who was one of Jonathan's sons. Back in first Samuel he was taken up by his nurse and fled from Isreal because they feared David was going to kill him since he was the next in line to the throne.
So now we come to the place where David has been established as king and now he remembers a promise he made to Jonathan.
1 Samuel 20:13-17 - "But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth."
Jonathan and David had a special brotherly love. A brotherly love like what is talked about in Proverbs 18:24 "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
Another point about Mephibosheth....he was lame in his feet, or crippled.
My point with all the set up here is that
1. David didn't owe Mephibosheth anything, barring the promise he made to Jonathan
2. Mephibosheth was a lame man so there was nothing he could have done to earn, or work out favor with David....he was pretty much useless
Yet what we see is that because of the promise he had made with Jonathan, whom he loved with a brotherly love that was deeper than any other, he took Jonathan's weak, cripple son and brought him to his house, and had him eat there and live in choice lands for all his days.
How awesome is that. The man who was already feeling pretty worthless from the fact that he was cripple, now comes before David thinking he is about to be killed on spot, and instead is given kingly meals, and lodging for the rest of his life.
It's a story of two things: A mirror of God's grace to us, a bunch of cripple nothings who deserve to be killed, but intsead were taken up and brought to eat at the King's table.
And also it is a testimony to how important brotherly love is in the church, amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Would we be so forthcoming with grace and aid to one of our fallen brother's or sister's family?

This has just been on my mind for the past couple of weeks.

Failure of Technology

Now seeing that I have completed my exams I will give you a run through of what my post-exam ritual would be:

I would wake up...approximately 11-12:00 in the afternoon (if I was not working)
I then go get me some tea and a snack
I sit down in my comfortable computer chair
I lean down and push the power button
.............
Nothing
I clicked it again
.............
Nothing
Why nothing?
Because my motherboard is shot....and has been for the past couple months
So have I been able to play my computer game for hours upon hours, totally vegetating out and losing all grips on reality outside of computer chips and FMVs?
No...it has been torture. I only have one week of freedom and a brand new game to play, but nothing to play it on.

Anyone want to donate a computer?