Worthwhile...

There. I did it again. You know what I've had multiple people ask me about?

"Jacob, what are the '...' for at the end of a text?"

I swear, I just put them there cause I'm bored. Honest. They don't mean anything.

Ahem. Continuing on. 

Being in college, I've come to understand the worth of someone/something. Quite literally, what is college worth? My bank account says it's worth about 20k a year (which I don't have); my brain says it's priceless because I get to travel abroad and learn things for my future career; sometimes I also feel it isn't worth it, because I feel like the first year and a half of classes are full of crap and useless.

College, depending on where you go, also makes you question the worth of many non-tangible things, such as friendships. Luckily, my old (back home) friends worth has only increased; I love them and hope it goes on forever. My new friends, their worth is still being assessed. Some will be allowed to stay, some will have to go, but that's life. 

As we continue on here, I'll discover old friends are worth more, and perhaps the best thing I have has really been by me all along. All of my friends, my family, other things that I took for granted, now they've been taken away. It'll take a lot of adjusting, but I know in the end it'll work out. Just gotta trust in God, and he'll lead you to whomever he pleases - odds are you'll like 'em too!

Jacob

Sex and Deceit

In college, I'm truly surrounded by sex. Everywhere. All my friends have/are doing it on a regular/semi-regular basis. It's a weekly occurrence in rooms. Only a brick wall separates me from it, sometimes. I find myself part of a increasingly-shrinking part of my friend circle that remain virgins. I'm pretty sure I can count the number of people on one hand, sadly.
And because of this, I'm faced every day with the opportunity to partake in these activities. Oh, believe me, I've debated it. But every time I make a remote step in that direction, my conscience drops like a rock and stops me. Gosh, thank God my parents instilled that in me.

I don't wanna be like that. I see all the heartbreak and drama that sexual activity causes; it is a slippery slope to a deep, deep ravine of depression and seemingly hopelessness, not to mention the hundreds of ways it complicates our lives everyday. I may be walking the unstable path next to it sometimes, but I'm still surviving. Luckily, lately I've had a very positive increase in affirmation of my goal to make it to the honeymoon bed. Cause that night with my wife, it's gonna blow our minds. ;)

We learned at church the other week that God made sex and is pleased with it. Unfortunately, we sinners like to corrupt a good thing; that's why my perception of it is terribly warped. I definitely don't view it in the goodness it should be viewed in. But physical affection is perfectly normal; that, I didn't know. God made Eve out of Adam because, as the pastor explained it, "there were some things Adam just couldn't do alone.". The problem arises here is that I'm a 19 year old male with raging hormones, and marriage is not in sight (that's a good thing, though). But it's all about perseverance.

Let me just show you what really, really gave me encouragement. The book of Song of Solomon is a little-known Old Testament book that depicts good sexual relations between newlyweds. While it also is considered to be a symbol of Christ's relationship with the church, it definitely can be directly interpreted too.
Proof?
Song of Solomon 5:4 My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me
In other versions, the latch is called a crevice or hole.
Yeah....
How about one more?
Song of Solomon 7:7 Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit.
I am SO excited. :D :D



Basically, all of these sexual acts we feel are "dirty" really glorify God. Sure, that may seem a little weird, but God does take pleasure in it.

So, future wife, I may know you now or may not, but I am going to do my absolute best to make sure my love is shared with you and only you. Because that's how God intended for it, and that's how it's proven to work.

Jacob

Song time!

God Gave Me You

It's not the country song, which means it's that much better. :)
But seriously, this song can be applied to so many people in my life. To those I knew, I know now, and will know.

Thank you God!

Jacob

I don't have an eating disorder, I swear

It occurred to me the other night that I only eat about 1 meal a day, usually lunch. Now, is this odd? Yeah, but on the other end I'm not hungry, so I'm not going to spend money on food that's going to be wasted.

Who knows, maybe I'll just lose a lot of weight. :P That's one way to get rid of the freshmen 15, I guess.

Other than that, I'm just busy a lot, as well as stressed. Lot of homework which I don't understand, God questions, and just overall growing up going on.

Forward to the daylight!!!

Jacob

You know, just another Tuesday

It's definitely the hardest part of the year. I'm kinda missing home and my friends. It's constantly cold, and there's no break in reasonable sight. Homework is constant and motivation is a daily struggle. I'm actually doing quite well given the circumstances, but still, blah..
I keep thinking of summer and how I'm going to make the most of it. I need to. It's only three months, but they've always been the best three months of my life. I get so much done, I do so much with friends, I work a lot. It's so satisfying. It pulls me through the cold, dreary days of January and beyond.
So I'm sitting here in the library, listening to Mat Kearney and blogging. Yeah, not that bad, I guess.

Jacob

Life without hope

College. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that word?



Probably something like this.

Now, when you think of God, what comes to mind?



(I actually don't have a picture to put here. Use your imagination.)

Well, anyways, the linking argument is that most people think we youngsters fall away from God during college. Now, there have been studies to show this to be true, and while that is sad, it is also a time of incredible transformation for many people. Not only do people discover (or re-discover) God in college, many times they pour out their entire lives to him! It's really an amazing period of life.
Yes, the parties can be fun, but a life full of purpose AND good fun is 10x better, I've discovered.

Why am I posting so seriously today? My my Jacob, you must have had a bad day...

No, actually not. I just started making plans to study abroad in Spain for a year. Holla gurl.

No, actually, the reason I bring this up is because lately me and few other friends have been going up against a guy on our floor who prides himself as the intelligent atheist. You know that stereotype you have of atheists? The young ones, angry at the world. hell-bent on destroying religion and proving everyone wrong? Yeah, that's him. It's sad, because I pray for him constantly (yet not as much as I feel I should), and it seems to make no difference. But God has a plan for all of us, no?
The thing I just can't understand is how atheists are so blind to their own fallacies?
I don't believe in something not proven by science.
Oh, that's my favorite. We can't prove a lot of things these days by science, yet we are grateful for them occurring. Also, when they start using the whole "it happened x amount of of years ago, therefore it can't be trusted" line, I only can smile and laugh, because we can't prove scientifically that anything happened in the past - we have to trust first-hand written accounts. Wanna prove George Washington crossed the Delaware? We can't; he didn't leave any footprint or evidence behind. We trust the accounts written are true, because nobody who saw it was alive.
If God's all powerful, why can't he stop starving children in Africa from dying?
He can, and he does sometimes, too. But he also is expecting us Christians - his followers - to step it up and show his love in physical form. Just because you have all the power, do you use it all the time? No; as a father, sometimes you allow your children to experience harmful things so that they know what not to do (yet we still do them) and that they know who really loves them.
We only have one life; we need to max it out.
Then why, in God's holy name, are you devoting your life being an ass to everyone else?! If you truly have one life, screw what we think; we should be irrelevant! Atheists should be skydiving, visiting foreign and exotic places, taking in all this awesome planet - whose creation was a total accident, by the way - has and live to the max. Because we only get these brief 80 some years, if you're lucky, then we're gone forever! But no, instead, they insist on mocking theists and religious people, tearing down good things that religion has built up over the years, and generally being angry at everything. Because guess what, religion is in everything. You can go about preaching it all you want, but people will always believe in something bigger than them.
Lastly, I just present a few questions. As one with no faith, where do you derive your moral standards? Christians bring it from the Bible, Muslims from the Koran, and others from their respective books. Atheists have no common book to gather around - Richard Dawkins The God Delusion hardly counts. Therefore, atheists cannot claim something that I do is "wrong" because their morals only apply to them; they have no universal atheist moral code. Christians do - granted it's not always followed - as do other religions. Atheists cannot claim the Holocaust was wrong, because at the time, people felt it was right.
Yes, I'm sure some atheist right now is coming up with a counterattack. But when they start diving into this realm, they gamble with their own logic, as we can't see or measure morals - therefore they can't exist, right?
Actually lastly, atheism in itself has become its own religion - believers of non-belief. Oppose it as you might, the collective group of new militant atheists is in tune with a religious cult.
I pray for them. While you may not agree with me, I definitely see no reason believers and non-believers cannot live in peace and harmony together. One day, we'll all come face to face with God, though, and we will be held accountable.

Jacob

Merp

For lack of a better title, merp is it.

I dunno, it's a pretty chill Sunday morning. I love getting wake-up calls from your boss saying you were put on the calender without you knowing. Oh well, so goes life. Can't complain about the money!

Otherwise, we got a couch in our room. I officially love my room, now.

Yeah, it's pretty much like that.

But now it's pretty much the daily routine again. Wake up, drink coffee, go to class, go to work, do homework, chill, sleep, repeat. Pretty mundane, but you gotta go through some boring stuff to get to the fun stuff.
I miss my friends back home, too! But I know that soon enough, we'll be back into summer mode. And that will be awesome.

Jacob

Muzic

From what I can remember, I've seen:
tobyMac 4 times
Skillet  3 times
TFK 2 times
Family Force Five 5 times
Brandon Heath 1 time
Red 2 times
Newsboys 2 times
Children 18:3 5 times
Brian "Head" Welch 1 time
Train 1 time
Switchfoot 2 times
Mat Kearney 1 1/2 times (he got rained out the second time)
Imagine Dragons 1 time - SOON TO BE TWICE
Tenth Avenue North 2 times
Lecrae 1 time
Relient K 1 time
(these all denote live performances/concerts)
And there are many, many other smaller bands I'm leaving out.

Last night I saw tobyMac and Red (again) on their Winter WonderJam tour. While the crowd was not my cup of tea, it was refreshing to get some spiritual and physical uplifting, with their catchy music and head bobbing beats.
But being there also made me realize how incredibly spoiled I am, seeing how many concerts I really attend.
We're seeing Imagine Dragons in a month, which will be my brother's FIRST concert. That also put it into perspective; concerts are a luxury in which I indulge frequently.
Yet, I don't feel bad! Music and concerts are apart of me, and something that really lets me blow off some steam. There's nothing really like going to a good Children 18:3 concert and moshing your brains out with your best friend.
But if you notice, most of these bands are Christian. See, for me, they defy the stereotype that Christians can't party hard; they can. Go to one Family Force 5 show and you will never think that again. Seriously; so much energy is put into their shows. 
But see, they put it up for God too. Watch this video; it's taken by someone I don't know, but I was literally right next to them as they recorded it. That was probably one of the greatest nights of my life. We were just dancing, jumping up and down, and shouting for Jesus. No dirty dancing or swearing; just good, clean fun. The Bible says God isn't against a bad time, either. Ecclesiastes 2:24 says, "There is nothing better for a person that that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil...".
God's all for having a good time; you just don't need an excessive amount of alcohol to do it. But Jesus drank wine, too. You know, that entire story about him turning water into it. God made alcohol, so it's not bad! Just enjoy it in moderation.
I feel the best when I have a good, healthy good time. I look forward to having one with some friends soon.

Jacob