Eric's Thoughts

Sorry, my title is miss-leading.  Camp is done tomorrow, but other than that I have not much to say.  It was a good day full of a variety of work (which I really enjoy).  And the sun burn on my neck is getting better.

Psalm 104 just lays out how awesome and powerful God is. Everything exists because He holds it all in His hands. When He removes Himself it dies.

Proverbs 4:8-9 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

She is wisdom. If I am chasing after her all that other stuff I will receive. If I chase the other stuff not only will I not get it, I will loose out on wisdom as well. So much like Christ. If I chase after Him, all these things shall be added unto me. If I’m chasing the things, I’ll loose both. Why am I so easily distracted from the true goal?

4:18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

4:24 Put away from thee a forward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

How I fail at this. Even this evening I failed at this.

II Chronicles 1:11-12 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou has not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet has asked long life; but has asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king: Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.

Again, Solomon got the wealth and honor because those were not his goal. Even the wisdom he asked for was not for him, but so that he could judge Israel fairly.

My day is pretty short.  It was good.  I both weed whacked and did computer stuff.  I am very tired, and my neck is sunburned.

Psalm 103:1-18 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are opressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

The last couple of weeks (maybe its been closer to a month) I have been really down, struggling with my sin, wanting to please God, but understanding the wretchedness of my own heart. I’ve also understood that this struggle I have with sin will continue till I die, and I’ve been frustrated how quickly I’ve been to dive into sin.

This psalm is so encouraging. He forgives my sin, He is merciful, slow to anger. He will not always chide me. He isn’t going to give me what I deserve. He knows my frame, He understands my weakness and pities me. How wonderfully, beautifully, awesome is that? Oh that I could grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ for me.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

3:7-8 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

I Chronicles 29:20 And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the LORD, and the king.

I have always wondered if we could “bless” God. It seems so counter intuitive that the created who have nothing apart from their Creator could bless Him, yet it appears so. I guess my next question is was the worship the blessing or are the two separate?

I guess my title is fairly self explanatory.  It really is a new work week, and we do have our first “official” camp in.  This week is 4H.  A lot has been happening computer wise here.  The website went down for about a day and a half (two days tops).  Some how our hosting company appears to have dropped the ball.  It’s fixed now.  The cable that I ran from the office to the Bearstooth has gone bad/broken.  It will have to be replaced.  That means I need just about 600 feet of coaxial cable.  It costs over $200 for 1000 feet.  I’m hoping Mike will say we’ve got the money.  Any way’s the camp counselors arrived today, and the campers will get here tomorrow.  All I can say is “So far so good.”

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

2:10-11 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.

I look at my life and it appears to me that I have no wisdom, for discretion and understanding don’t seem to be part of my character.

I Chronicles 28:9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all imaginations of the thougths: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever.

So today had much variety.  This morning I got the new Arrowhead website up, got the irrigation pump out and hooked up, and worked on Tyler’s computer (Tyler is the assistant program director this summer).  This afternoon I finished up on Tyler’s computer, and spent the rest of the day mowing lawn.  There was a lot more left to mow than I thought, and I’m tired.  Chapel this evening was good.

Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

It was a good day, but not very exciting.  The sun went away and the rain came back (which is good for the grass and keeping away forest fires, but not so much fun to work in).  I’m sorry I can’t think of a thing to say, so I’ll just shut up.

Psalm 99:3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.

Oh that I could comprehend and understand this. His name, just His name is great and terrible. I can’t grasp that. What kind of beings name is so holy that it is great and terrible? My God is mind boggling. To wonderful for comprehension, that is in a song some where.

Proverbs 30:8-9 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

It just hit me how focused on God this man was.

I have to say I am an impatient person.  I want to be better and be better now.  And so I forget to thank God that I am getting better and that I’ve been able to keep up in my work.  I have been hit again, with a small glimps of what an awesome God I serve.  I’m pretty sure He keeps the glimpses small because I couldn’t handle a big one.  Any who I’m blathering.  It was a good day today.  The weather was really nice for a change.  I got to work outside this afternoon which was wonderful.

Psalm 98:8-9 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

Proverbs 29:11 A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepth it in till afterwards.

Does this mean fools are transparent, and wise men opaque (or am I just taking that out of context)?

29:23 A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

Two polar opposites. There is no compromise. You are in one camp or the other and the two camps do not get along.

Yesterday was miserable. I got some cold bug. I had a sore throat, fever, headache. The fever broke just after midnight this morning, and I’ve felt much better today (though I’ve been tiring easily) even though my nose is mostly stuffed and my head hurts from time to time. It rained all day today. I worked on the ABC website, and I cleaned the dining hall (though some nice summer staffers volunteered to help). Over all it was a good day.

Psalm 97:10-12 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper;: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Confess and forsake. It is not enough to simply confess my sins. I have to stop doing them.

28:25-26 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

Ok, so I’m not sure what’s going on, but I rebooted the server today (Ubuntu 10.04 server edition 32 bit) and I couldn’t log in.  I had the correct user name and password, but I kept getting a timeout error.  It’s really frustrating, and then it just started working, for no reason that I could see.  I don’t understand, and for the first time both Google and the Ubuntu forums are failing me.  I can’t seem to find a solution to this problem, and I’ve only run into one other person who seems to have had it.  Ok, enough about my computer woes (after all that is part of my job).  I also worked in the Trading Post, and hosted the Absarokee 8th graders graduation bash.  It went well, but the camp fire could have been better.  That was mostly my fault, but it is done now.  This is getting long, and pointless so I’ll move on.

Proverbs 26:17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.

26:24-25 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.

How many times have I disassembled people, both with my mouth and in my heart.

I Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

Satan attacked Israel through David.

21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand.

It looks like God changed His mind. Huh.

So this weekend I re-installed our server from scratch.  Naturally I backed it up before hand, but apparently my backup did not copy hidden files.  So my journal (I’ve been keeping it since 2001) was not backed up when I blew the server away.  Ok, no problem, I’ve been using a different program to back up the server daily and it did copy hidden files.  I went to my back up and for some reason my folder was empty.  Every one else’s was fine, but mine had nothing in it.  Bummer.  What can I do?  Nothing.  So I started over tonight.

Enough about me.  About two thirds of our summer staff have arrived, for staff training (the other third will show up next week).  So far that has been going very well.  It looks to be a good crew this year.  The weather today was cold and rainy, but it is supposed to clear up by the end of this week, and should be pretty nice.

Psalm 94:11-12 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

Proverbs 25:20 As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.

25:27 It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.

I Chronicles 20:8 These were born unto the giant at Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the had of his servants.

I wonder who that giant was. Apparently he was so well known they didn’t need to use his name. The giant had at least four sons (including Goliath).

I’m done with carpets till this weekend when I’ll do the office.  I’m also planning on redoing the server this Saturday.  I’m actually a little worried about it, as it will be a big job and it’s important that I do it right the first time.  I’m hoping to be able to leave it alone for a few years after that.  My back has been healing quickly, and I’m very thankful for that.  It’s still sore, but nothing like it was on Monday (at least I think that’s when I hurt it).

Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change.

24:29 Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.

I Chronicles 19:13 Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.

It seems to me this is how I ought to live. Courageously and valiantly for Christ, and God will do whatever is good in His sight. As long as I am faithful in my obedience everything else is God’s call.