Thanks for asking here is what makes me sick:
1) I hate it when christians don't even realize when they are acting like they are too proud and too puffed up to even care about what is going on around them but instead they have their bubble that they can't leave due to their own silly self-righteousness. The sad part about my statement is while i am making sure i am not this person i am describing to you, it is something that is prevalent at Florida College. It is sad to say but there are several people each year that just think they are above certain people and it is really really sad that they think that way. thats number one and it is not my passionate topic for the night.
2) The topic that just happened last night is the controversy of a sports team by the name of The Tampa Bay Lightning. Last night they welcomed in the Philadelphia Flyers. Whenever the Flyers had the puck in their own end the Lightning would go to a zone defense- possibly could call it a prevent defense- in a set up of a 1-3-1. The general set up is you have one defensemen close to the goalie as last defense then you have three in the middle and then one up top as an attacker and pressure person. Well instead of doing the athletic thing and attack this defense and try and find a hole and force their hand they would sit back and waste time. While i understand hockey is suppose to be similar to hockey in the sense that it is suppose to be always moving and always looking for a scoring chance, i also understand the defensive strategy the Lightning Coach, Guy Boucher, was wanted to work and perfect last night. To his credit it was effective in some people's eyes but in some others (the Flyers and some hockey analysts) eyes it was a disgrace to the sport. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW???? LIKE SERIOUSLY I AM SO OVER TEAMS BLAMING THE OTHER TEAM OR THE CONDITIONS OR SOME UNFORESEEN EVENT HAPPENING THAT TOOK AWAY FROM THEIR GAME PLAN. YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE!!!!! GROW UP AND PLAY THE SPORT!!!! IF YOU DON'T LIKE A DEFENSE THAT THEY SHOW THEN BREAK IT AND FORCE THEM TO PLAY SOMETHING ELSE BUT DONT BE SUCH A BABY ABOUT HOW ANOTHER TEAM PLAYS ESP WHEN THEY COME OUT AND BEAT YOU. This is so sickening that i almost want to write the Flyer organization and remind them that they are professional athletes and they are making money to play and be successful. Their coach is paid to determine their best strategies before a game while looking at film and practicing, then during the game as a coach you are needing to change the strategy due to maybe an unforeseen defense strategy by the other team and get them to change it due to your success, and thirdly once the game is over you can look at film and change strategy for next time you play them you are able to cut thru their defenses and make them have to adapt to how you are attacking their zone. So seriously i applaud the lightning for sticking with their defensive strategy because they held a high power, high scoring offense to 1 single goal. Seriously thats and embarrasment?? according to Chris Pronger. I only want to end with one thought and that is simply: WOW can professional athletes get any more cry babyish? Grow up put your pampers on because you are a big boy/girl now and don't need your hand held every step of the way. ADAPT TO THE TEAMS YOU PLAY AND COME OUT ON TOP THEN YOU CAN SHOUT HOW YOU HAVE EMBARRASSED THE HOME CROWD. BECAUSE ITS NOT AN EMBARRASSMENT WHEN YOU ARE ON THE TEAM THAT LOSSES!!!!!!!! CHECK THAT THOUGHT OUT :)
Okay thats all i have for tonight:) hope you know me well enough that you can picture me saying this and laugh at it because i am sure i could be a stand up comedian on this topic as well as a few others:)

Okay so yesterday marked the first M-W-F class schedule of this new fall 2011 semester:) I finished around one and so i went to the student center and just was chilling out and decided it was a good time to read a little in my bible. I turned to Lamentations and was reading the first chapter and i found it interesting how Jeremiah was describing a city in ruins and a woman of harlotry or more bluntly- a whore by trait. He talks about how the city was lonely, deserted and she was now a widow. A once very high standing, respected (to an extent) city now humbled and among the dust with no more heart. Well later in the same chapter roughly verse 8-9 he says:
"Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she ahs become an unclean thing. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; even she herself groans and turns away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she did not considerf her future. Therefore she ahs fallen astonishingly; she has no comforter. 'See, O Lord, my affliction, For the enemy fhas magnified himself!'".
Its interesting to me anyways when i first read it i thought of the stories i heard while working at applebee's about how people would just freely and without a care have sex and not worry about anything. To christians obviously there is this standard stated in many different places but specifically in 1 Cor. 6:19 how he is talking about how our body is a temple. It isn't a physical huge and glorious temple but rather it is a spiritual place for God to dwell and show is glory, at times his mercy and grace but all in all it is a place he can abide to help us through different situations. While Jeremiah was distraught because of the state of the city, i can see some sorrow for the people who use to live there and now they are in the middle of foreign lands back in slavery where God put them due to their lack of ability to obey and trust in him fully. The people were read the law, would get away from it, and then they would be shown thru different kings, judges, and at this point several different prophets which was a consistent cycle for them. i make this point abotu Israel's past because Jeremiah from verse 16 down describes his sorrow over his people. He knows what has happened in the past and now he is just beside himself and doesn't know what to do because there is no one around him other than God that can comfort him but even that is not comforting him like he needs. For me this is very relevant mainly due to the simple fact of when i drank my body was not apart of God's temple. Satan had turned my mind to think that drinking is okay. So with a stretch of the imagination bare with me on this: i could viwe myself as one of those whores who daily gave themselves to whoever. i opened myself up to the feeling good and whatever was popular verse standing up against satan and saying no i don't need this and just walked away from it. The skirts, or the armor of God in my case, of the city were shown and most cases were not there. Allowing satan to just come in and say hey its okay is kind of like what Adam and eve did with the fruit in the garden. Satan in very subtle ways said hey its okay if you just have one because in just having one there isn't anything wrong with it. However here is why it is wrong to even have that one sip: in that one sip you have told satan okay i am okay with allowing this influence to just try something. Most of the time wiht satan once you try something that you know deep down is wrong he smiles and almost automatically has you due to the lack of strength in saying no from the start. Now why all these different examples when we are talking about a city that is burdening Jeremiah? Very simple: If we don't keep our guard up and keep his commandments then on judgment day we will be just like the city in ruins. We will be in a place where there is no comfort there is no peace between people, and most importantly we have no one that has a heart and cares about what goes on.
Well that was just a couple of things that i had thought about so hope this helps you all in some way or another:) feel free to comment or even talk to me about it if you want or are confused i am open to discuss these things.

Josiah C. Jones

I am on an extremely exhilirating high right now thanks to the Florida College Labor Camp. We have done some destruction, some relocation and some painting. The tennis courts over by the soccer field are down and gone, the mesh on the back fence of the Baseball field is gone, and the netting street side of the baseball field is down. Now the major tasks are painting the parking curbs and finishing the student center rennovations. It is going to look sooooo good once we are done, and there is a major need to know change in the student center that will shock many people and will look awesome once installed. So we have done some hard labor but in return we have been able to also take abotu 2-3 hours if not a little more to study God's word and grow a better udnerstanding and find some true knowledge and wisdom of the Psalms. There is soo much going on in the book and the different chapters that i wish we could take the entire year and just study the psalms at our own pace and just have the different insights that people have shared with a select few of the psalms. Imagine if we were able to truly understand the passion, the sincerity and the desire to have God's approval thru these Psalms and apply it to how we worship our God? how amazing that would be and the effect physically, emotionally and above all spiritually for our hearts......That gives me goose bumps thinking about how awesome that would be. However comign back down to earth: i have to remember that this is earth, not just third rock from the sun but the place that is filled with materialistic things and the lack of glory and true awesomeness in heaven is missing which should then equal a different point of view from us. It should allows us the abillity to reach even more earnestly to reach heaven and meet that goal of seeing our spiritual brothers and sisters next to us praising our Creator the entire day which would never end because paraphrasing here: God does not count a minute as a minute. A minute to Him is more like a thousand years to him. Talking about Psalms and different psalms we have discussed one that refers to heaven is Psalms 84. specifically vs 10. It says
"For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness."
What an awesome analogy: i would rather spend my eternal life as a door opener, a greeter at the feet of God my maker than be in today's society is essentially what i think is how we could accurately portray the significance of this analogy to what we want to accomplish. If that makes sense it is such a powerful and awesome thought. I would love to hear back from you all who read this and hear (and read) your thoughts on this. Please feel free to comment however you feel appropriate too:)

Siah Jones

If you agree with what i have said or have feedback on it or maybe have a correction in my thinking that you would like to express please feel free to because i will just be abel to grow more that way verse the reader not voicing an opinion and letting me think the wrong way.:)
Psalms 14

I was reading over this and it got me thinking about today’s society. This passage can be directed straight to our circumstances with the world. We as Christians are not just the minority but the shunned. We believe in something that according to the world says is not existent because of the fact we have a God that is waiting for the right moment to strick back. In a way that we don’t consider or even think of stricking back but that is going to be judgment day. That will be a day where not only you and me are held accountable for our actions and words of our ages but will be of every single man, woman and child on earth. We will be able to smile due to the fact that our attitude towards the world won’t matter anymore. We will be able to not worry about anything or anyone besides ourselves. We will not have to be susceptible to currption but rather we will be the ones if the Lord wills, will be singing in heaven a new song with the many angels and other Christians before us and we will be praising him the entire time. There is nothing that will harm us on that day. However here is the sad note, Some of us are luke warm Christians and we will not be counted among the righteous because we never got outside of our comfort zone and really tried to reach out to others. I find it interesting that sometimes we look at other denominations, congregations, and maybe even religions and we say well they are interpreting it the wrong way so they are going to hell. It is our job to show them the imperfections and it is our job to correct our brethren to make sure they do have the opportunity to get to heaven. I have fallen many times and it will take me some time to get back on the right track however I know God will strengthen me as long as I put forth the effort and call on his name in humility asking for his hand to reach out and assist my desire to be more like Christ and totally repent of my previous lifestyle. I am so thankful for God’s grace and mercy and for Christ’s willingness to come to earth and die for my sins and your sins and that the avenue of emersion into water and a baptism is made possible for us to be able to have that hope. God is so GOOD to us and we need to make sure we are truly thankful for the things he has shown us and the doors he has opened up for us because otherwise our life would be worth nothing and the efforts we put into everything done in a day is worth nothing which is a very sad thought and a very humbling thought as well. As I have stated may we always be grateful to God for his mercy, for his ability to send people into our lives to help us in whatever way possible and that we have that hope he provides. Once again these thoughts were taken from just reading Psalms 14:1-7.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven.”

There are so many different messages we can pull from this passage. One of the main points is being able to understand the light of the world analogy in verse 14. As Christians living in today’s society we have to do much more to be that light. We are 1 in 1000’s that we have to witness to, encourage, or even maybe admonish other Christians at times. Our struggle is not in those things; they are more into the fact that the influences in today’s world are soo much greater than that not even 5 years ago. We go into a restaurant and the influence just by suggestive selling, or the commercials on the television are evidence to show that our society is falling farther and farther away from the original goal of knowing God and the ultimate prize of a place in Heaven. Society today has taken their free will and totally twisted the intentions into their own ideas, their own opinions and even their beliefs. Our leadership is effected by making sure we Stand fast to what we believe and to what we know as being true. We must guard ourselves against these things and remember the greater good and the ultimate prize when we are being persecuted, or when we are being laughed at because of what we have said or done. Christ will not be laughing at us in the end. He will be proud of us for our steadfast beliefs in him. This will tie into tomorrow’s verse so I want to save some points just to keep the curiosity there.

I have started to send a verse or a couple of verse to a friend as a help for me as well as something that i have thought about doing for a while now:) Comments/thoughts/advice on the thinking given here would be great and much appreciated.


Siah J