Spent the day at home with my mom. Witnessed one of the fences in our backyard being built. Worked a little. Hung out with my brother when he got out from school at 3:20. In the evening, my brother and dad went to a chess tourney in sacramento and my mom went to a meeting regarding development.

The land next to our home was sold a while back, and they're in the process of figuring out what they're going to do with the land and how they're going to develop it. There has been quite a few meetings involving the people who live in this region.

While everyone was gone, I took my camera and walked over to Dollar Tree, where I purchased 5 more 4x6 frames. I put some of my recent prints in the frames and hung them up around the house. Twas pretty cold during my walk.

When my brother returned from sacramento, I learned that he had lost 3 out of 5 rounds in the tournament, including a game to his good friend (who went on to win the tournament).

Tomorrow is my last full day at home before I head back to Berkeley for Spring semester on friday. This weekend I'm going on a church retreat.

An AT&T technician paid a visit this morning after we reported additional problems with our DSL service and phone line (dsl goes down and there's static on the phone). A few days ago a technician came and figured out a problem outside the house, where lines were being cross with ours. When that was fixed, the internet got a bit better but continued to go down. We called in again and had a new person come take a look today. He looked inside the house this time, and finally isolated the problem to the phone jack in my room, which my dad removed and put back while he was painting the room. We learned that the jack in my room was causing a short in our phone line system. He replaced it, charged us $60 for his 20 minutes, and left. Our internet and phone seem fine now.

Devotion time notes:

Romans 13

We are instructed to submit ourselves to governing authorities, but must also keep in mind their place under the God. As long as our obedience and obligation to God is not threatened by an authority over us, we are called to obey authority.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.
Romans 13:1

God has ordained that there be government and authority, but these things can be corrupted and fail, just like the God established institutions of church and marriage can. However, as we see in the Bible, God can use any nation, government, or ruler for his purposes, as he did Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar.

Government is something that God has established, but that does not exclude the possibility of man abusing what was originally intended as good and beneficial.

Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
Romans 13:5

As Christians, we must obey the law and our authorities not simply out of fear of punishment, but out of maintaining a good conscience towards God by obeying his servants.

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Romans 13:7

The second half of this chapter deals again with how we can and should demonstrate love for one another, and do so because the day is near.

A practical example of showing love is to not leave debts outstanding. We should not spend money on ourselves when there is still money that is owed to another. If we have the means to pay off debts, we should do so in a timely manner.

My housemates and I have a whiteboard on which we record amounts of money that we owe one another. I'm not sure if we should be behaving differently in light of this verse, since I have quite a few outstanding debts to my housemates that I definitely have the means to pay... However, we've found it practical to simply change figures on a whiteboard rather than have cash change hands all the time, so what we're doing is probably fine.

Many of the 10 Commandments are warnings against things we should not do, yet they can all be summed up and satisfied if we obey one instruction on what we should do, and that's loving our neighbors as ourselves. If we live by this rule completely, there is no need for rules against murdering, stealing, coveting, etc...

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Romans 13:11

Help me to be awake and sober God. Each and every moment is one moment closer to glory. If a future life of glory and righteousness is what we genuinely long for and look forward to, then we need to begin living in such a manner in the present time. How can we claim to desire one thing, yet seek after another?