Paul encouarages the believers in Corinth to remain unmarried if they are not married, but to remain married if they are married (1 Cor 7:25-28). Paul encouraged circumcised men to remain circumcised and uncircumcised men to remain uncircumcised (vs.17-20). He also encouraged those who were slaves to remain slaves (unless he was able to become free) and for free men to remain free (vs.21-24). The present distressing circumstances made this a wise thing to do.

"Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called" (vs. 24)

Many times people devote their lives to Christ in the midst of distressing circumstances. Sin has torn us apart and leaves us despondent. Though our outlook is beginning to change because we are in Christ, our situation is still miserable. In this situation we postpone service to our God and look for better circumstances to serve God in.
But, we should not think in terms of liberating ourselves from our situations, but using the situation God has put us in to glorify Him. God can use whatever situations we are in for His glory. God is exalted so many times in the scriptures through situations that seemed hopeless.

Israel was in Egyptian bondage - God redeemes them
Ruth was a helpless widow - God provides for her
Gideon only had 300 men - God fights for them
Jesus was in the tomb - God raises Him
The apostles were in prison - God rescues them
Paul was completely off course - God guides him

God's lets us know that He will give us the strength to persevere. We must be devoted to doing what is right as He sees it and live our lives in service to Him.

"Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right" 1 Peter 4:19

I don't know much about shepherding, but apparently when a baby lamb got lost by its mother the baby lamb would come to another mother among the flock to be cared for. That mother would smell that it was not her own lamb and she might shun it, kick it, and even kill it sometimes. To help the baby lamb farmers would sheer the wool off of one of the other baby lambs that did have a mother and sew a coat for the rejected baby lamb. The farmer would sheer the rejected lamb and put the new coat on it. With this new wool coat, the mother would smell the wool of her own baby lamb and care for the lost lamb.
This is what Jesus has done for us. We were a lost baby lamb, repulsive to God because of our sin. God turned His face away from us and would not care for us. But Jesus sheered us of our old selves and clothed us with Himself so we would be recognizable to God as one of His own. He has now accepted us and brought us near to care for us. How amazing is that!

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. Galatians 3:27

Things have been great this past year since I last updated. Have a wonderful year until I update next March. Continue in the Lord.

This is Caleb. He is my crazy roomate. Caleb likes to read while sitting inside a bush next to the river. He gets in wierd moods sometimes. During this bush sitting he had fallen asleep while he was reading. He had been startled when the yearbook staff, including the photographers, came to interview him about his conversion to Arete and his recent 3 and 3. They could not find him for a minute or two until they noticed the bush moving and then Caleb popped out. They instantly pulled out their cameras and took a picture. His expression could be mistaken for contemplation on some difficult passage from our English 2 book, but this is actually his half-awake, "what is going on?" expression.


This is Brian. He lives right across the hall from me. He is pretty crazy too, well at least he has been since his accident. We don't talk much about "the accident". It brings tears to my eyes to retell it. One beautiful february day, during the month of february, brian was skipply jollily to class, as was his usual routine every morning. On this particular day, Brian had his mind in far worlds of lolly pops and babies pajamas. Doc Warner was coming down the road at suffocating speeds of 5-10 mph. He was driving his motor cart that day, as he did occasionally when he didn't have anywhere to be anytime soon. Unfortunately, Brain wasn't watching and ran into Doc, in mid skip, as he was pulling into his parking spot. Doc Warner was fine, but Brian wasn't. They did all they could, but that's why he's like this today. Doc graciously let him have the motor cart - he knew that Brian needed it more than he did now. This is Brian sporting his new motor cart.

-Chuggins

This week has been pretty crazy. By that I mean busy. But it is good to be busy, it forces me to be diligent (but also sleepy) :)
For everyone who knows a certain dude named Ira Glover, give a shout out to him. He is a really neat guy. He comes up to Wilson and hangs out with all the freshman and sophmores (even though he is a lot older). Here are some of my favorite Ira phrases:
1. Shame upon thy house!
2. How ya doin', eh?
3. I'd have to disagree...
4. Duuude!
5. That's foul

Ira quotations:
1. "Dude, he's a soft serve (about Larry Johnson)...dude, there's chocolate candy crunch, malfunction junction, there's charcoal."
2. He was asked, "And what about those guys from the Sudan?"
He replied, "Dude...their blue-blacks"
3. "When I was little I used to think that we had a hole in our stomachs and if you drink too much water it would spill over and fill you up."
4. "When I was little my mom would tell me that Christmas was just around the corner. I would get really excited and run around the corner to see, but there wasn't anything there."

Shout out to Ira, the brown man.

-Chuggins

Okay, I've been tagged a couple times, so here are 5 wierd things about me.

...to be continued (it's late)