Three hours later……

Why do people not see how powerful their words are? Three hours have passed and I am still struggling with the words that were spoken to me by a pastor friend. He may have thought he was being sincere but his words reached their target. No matter who you are words hurt. You may be a seasoned Christian or the hulk but the fact remains, words hurt. I think I am a very confident person with a healthy self esteem but his words broke through all of that!

If your words are not going to build, encourage, inspire, and bring out the best in someone then don’t say it. Why would you say something you know will hurt someone? If you know it’s going to hurt them then don’t say it. Let us honor people by the way we speak to them. You may think you are being real and being realistic but you are simply hurting them. Yes people need to hear the truth and yes they need to be confronted but we need wisdom in how we speak to them!

As I conclude remember, no matter who you are words hurt.

 

Rolain

I have forgotten God…..!

Young women don’t forget their jewelry, do they? 

Brides don’t show up without their veils, do they? 

But my people forget me.

Day after day after day they never give me a thought. Jeremiah 2:32

I read this scripture today and I was so convicted. In this chapter God was speaking

to Israel and it is easy to think those words only applied to them but that is not true.

I too have forgotten God!! How so you may be asking???

 

I forget God every time I spend countless hours on Facebook instead of spending time with Him, 

I forget God when I choose to watch a movie instead of spending time with Him, 

I forget God when I don’t deliberately take the time to worship Him during the week, 

I forget Him when I choose to do everything else but spend time with Him!!!

 

Facebook, talking to friends and being on a phone are not bad in themselves. They become bad when they become the MAIN things and GOD and His word come second!! God wants to be first and EXPECTS to be first in my life and anything else that takes His place is an idol……!!!

Please forgive me for forgetting You Lord. You are THE most important thing in my life, not the second most important thing but the MOST  important thing! Help me to NEVER forget You all of my days……..Amen

Rolain

 

 

 

The city that fell by a mere word!!!

 

By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted;                                                                                                                                                                                but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. Proverbs 11:11

I have been getting so angry at how people have been treating the EBOLA outbreak. The other day

a couple of guys were talking when one of them started coughing. One of the other guys jokingly

said he had EBOLA!!! Everyone in the group starting laughing thinking it was so funny. I couldn’t

believe how lightly they were treating it. Our country is still safe from EBOLA but I don’t think that

warrants a joke. This is just one case I mentioned but there many like it where people think its

so funny to joke about EBOLA. The truth is, it’s not funny. We don’t have the right to joke about a virus

just because we are in the clear!!

The scripture I shared teaches us a principle. By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted. Is that not

amazing??? But we also learn a city can be overthrown by the mouth of the wicked!!

 

A city is overthrown by negative, destructive words is another way we can look at that scripture! The wicked don’t

know better so they are excused but what about you and me who know better??? We are not excused! It sounds harsh but

it’s the truth. What does it help if we are emulating the wicked. The wicked are bringing the city down with their words and

the righteous doing the same! This ought not to be so brothers and sisters……!!

 

The people joking about the virus don’t really understand the power of their words!

“By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted”   – I think we can agree being blessed is not an overnight thing.

It takes time and work. God has done a lot so we could be blessed and continues to help us walk blessed. Jesus had

to die so we could be blessed, God had to give up His one and only Son so we could be blessed. As we are blessed the city

is exalted but it’s not easy!

“but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked”  –  It just takes words to overthrow a city! The wicked don’t have to

do much, they just have to open their mouth. Words have power we don’t fully comprehend. Let us speak life to counter the

evil the wicked are speaking over our city and nation and over our own lives. We must not allow the words of the wicked to

destroy our city! We have a responsibility to speak life over our city. As we have been blessed we should spread the blessing!

 

Let us not remain silent friends. Every nation has problems, real problems but let us be the ones that speak life. If a city can

be overthrown by the words of the wicked just just imagine what can happen when the upright speak life!!!!!

Rolain

 

Life as a pencil…….

THOUGHT OF THE DAY.

A friend sent me something I thought I would share with you. Hope you enjoy it.

A pencil marker taught the pencil 5 important lessons:

1. Everything you touch will always leave a mark. 

2. The mistakes you make can always be corrected. 

3. Your most important asset is what is inside of you. 

4. In life you will undergo some painful sharpening that will make you a better pencil. 

5. To be the best you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you. 

Like a pencil you must allow God to be the HAND that guides you throughout your life.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading that like I did my fellow “pencils”.    Hahaha

God bless.

Rolain

Oh no….I lost the ‘list’!!!

“You don’t know what you want” were the words ringing in my ears after speaking to a friend this past week. The words were a bit harsh but he was right. We were talking about relationships and the challenges I was facing finding the One. Have you written your “list” he asked? Off course I did. I wrote the “list” a long time ago.

“The list, for those that don’t know is when a single man or woman writes about the attributes and character of the man or woman they want. It’s a very specific list of things you want.  (Is she tall, short, athletic, adventurous, is he funny, caring and so on?)”

But as I recited to him the things on my list something shocking happened……..There were things I wasn’t sure about anymore!! I was undecided…..! I began to panic, what was I going to do? Was I double minded because if I was the word says, “a double man is unstable in all his ways and he can expect nothing from God”!

But upon further thought I realized why I was unsure. As I have matured and grown in the Lord and met and interacted with a lot of women there are things I have come to appreciate that I never did when I was younger. Upon further thought I came to another conclusion:

If the woman I wrote about all those years ago has changed doesn’t that mean the woman I write about now is going to change as I continue maturing? To take it even further, does it mean its pointless even compiling a list when I don’t even know myself that well?? A list is important, this I understand. It is so important to have an idea of what you want. This is one area where you cannot be clueless! But this is my point; the “list” can’t be all we go by. The “list” is flawed because we as humans are flawed. Only God knows what you really need! It’s okay to have a guide line for what you want. That guide line is the “list” but don’t let it be your final measuring line!

So here I am with an idea of what I want. It is very detailed but at the same time it’s not. There are things I can’t come to a final conclusion about but I am trusting the God who knows me better than anyone else in this world. I don’t have to worry about an incomplete list because God the One who created my wife will bring her to me and she will be everything I expect and even more. I pray she is not exactly as I picture her because that means God has succumbed to my low and flawed view of the “one”! I pray that is not the case. I want the woman He has for me, not the one I have created for myself!

Rolain.

The stone the Angel rolled away!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could embalm Him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us”? Mark 16:1-3

“They worried to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us”?

This seemed like a very petty issue but let me assure you, it wasn’t. The stone weighed about 2 tons according to studies made so that means the women had no hope of moving that stone. What struck me about this story was why such a seemingly meaningless concern was mentioned in the bible. Who cares about a stone?

The women had a concern which seemed meaningless but it wasn’t. An angel rolled the stone away! Their concern wasn’t too small for God. He helped them by sending an angel to roll it away!!

This shows me that no request is too small for God. It seemed like a small thing but it wasn’t and God took it seriously! What concerns do you have? You can bring them to God, no matter how big or small, He wants to help.

Rolain

A note to the busy…….

Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling?

Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice?

She’s taken her stand at First and Main,

at the busiest intersection.

Right in the city square

where the traffic is the thickest, she shouts,  Proverbs 8:1-3

 

This is a very interesting scripture. Interesting not because she makes a call but where she makes the call. She could of gone to any place and made the call to anyone but the scripture says,

 

“She has taken her stand at First and Main,

at the busiest intersection.

Right in the city square

where the traffic is the thickest, she shouts,

 

It’s so busy that she has to raise her voice. She actually has to shout to get the people’s attention! That got me to think. What were the people doing that she had to shout??? Were they really that busy? I started bringing up possible scenarios……

– A man had to get to the other part of town so he could deliver a package and get paid.

– A mom had to take her kids to school and was running late

– A young man had to meet someone who would fund his business

– A parent had to  rush to the hospital because his child was involved in an accident

– A family had to rush to the airport or they would miss their flight

and so on and so on………… Whatever the reason is for the busyness, they forgot about wisdom because she had to make the call. If they were operating in wisdom in their busyness wisdom would of kept silent but that was not the case.

Doesn’t that describe the kind of world we live in today? Everyone is just so busy today. Too busy to form real relationships. Too busy to stop and care for someone. Too busy to love. Too busy to stop and take time with their children. Too busy to stop and look at their lives and make changes. Too busy to stop and reflect.

Stop! Take some time to listen, someone pretty important is calling. And she is calling you! Will you heed her call or are you just too busy? It’s not wrong to be busy but when that busyness stops you from listening to the voice of wisdom then you have a problem. That is my challenge!

Rolain

 

Naked and barefoot…

THOUGHT OF THE DAY.

In the year the field commander, sent by king Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought and took it, God told Isaiah Son of Amoz,’Go, take off your clothes and sandals, and Isaiah did it. going about naked and barefoot. 

Then God said, Just as my servant Isaiah has walked around town naked and barefooted for three years as a warning sign to Egypt and Ethiopia..Isaiah 20:1-3

This is one of the craziest stories I have read for sure!

Firstly, Isaiah is told to take off his clothes and sandals. We don’t read of any explanation being given by God. He simply tells Isaiah to take off his clothes.

The second craziest thing about this story is, Isaiah just obeys!!!! He never complained, dragged his feet, murmur, or sulk, he just obeyed! How amazing is that??

The third craziest thing about this story is Isaiah was naked for THREE YEARS!!!! Not three hours. But THREE YEARS……How crazy is that? Isaiah didn’t care what people would say. Was he uncomfortable?? I would like to think so, but what God wanted was Isaiah’s highest priority. Everything else came second to that….wow!

What an example of obedience we have. I was so challenged as I read this story. Am I obedient as Isaiah? Does my personal comfort affect my obedience to God? Will I obey God even if I don’t like it or if it feels uncomfortable? Will I be obedient to Him even if it means being ridiculed by people?

How obedient are you to God???

Rolain

 

She was a nobody but faith………

This is part of three of my series on Hebrews 11. Read part two here. As I start this post I would like to share a verse that got my attention,

[Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace [without enmity]. Hebrews 11: 31

Rehab is a hero of the faith but I wonder if she sees the same thing?? If we spoke to her now would she say she is a hero proudly? A lot of people read her story and are inspired and it is good but let us look deeper into her life. She was a prostitute and that meant a few things:

– She slept with men for money. It didn’t matter if the man was married or a drunk, or abusive, as long as they had money she would sleep with them.

– She was looked down upon by society.

– It’s very possible she struggled with a low self esteem

– She was finding it hard to make ends meet and maybe that is why she became a prostitute.

– She lived in fear (it’s possible she was threatened by men she slept with)

– No one respected her.

– She may have broken a few families up. It’s possible wives found out their husbands slept with Rahab and left!

– She must have dealt with guilt and condemnation on a regular basis because of the things she had to do. .

– Did she try to commit suicide???

I would like to make something clear before we move on,

I look up to Rahab and in no way am I trying to tear down her reputation and what God had done for her. I am trying to paint a picture of what she probably went through to make you understand what God saved her from. Because despite all the bad she did and all the bad that happened to her, through faith she was saved. Her name is recorded among the Greats because she trusted God! Because of faith she saved her family and was found in Jesus’s lineage!! (Matthew 1:5)

We need faith and without it we can do nothing pleasing to God. Do I understand what faith is? Not really. What I do know is God did amazing things through the people who trusted Him. No matter what people labeled them, or where they grew up, they turned the world upside down!

This is what the word says about these great men and women of faith,

[Men] of whom the world was not worthy–roaming over the desolate places and the mountains, and [living] in caves and caverns and holes of the earth. (Hebrews 11:38 AMP)

Think about all Rahab could of gone through. How could God use her, one could think but in the end what matters is He did! No one is too far off for God to use!

You might feel like you are of no use and your life doesn’t count for something. You might think you have committed too much sin to ever do anything great or you may be plagued with guilt and condemnation but know God has a plan for you! He wants to do great things through you and that is why He wants you to trust Him. Only God can turn your life into something great but you have to have faith in Him!

Rahab did that. She stepped out in faith to God despite what she had done and what people thought and saved the spies. As she used her faith her life changed never to be the same ever. What an amazing testimony for her. I am going to look forward to meeting her and hearing her story! Her story is an example of what God can do with someone who has faith in Him!

Our faith in God can do things we never imagined ever. It can open doors only God can open. Have faith in Him.

Rolain