Move ahead in faith…

“And the people grumbled and deplored their hardships, which was evil in the ears

of the Lord, and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled; and the fire of the 

Lord burned among them and devoured those in the outlying parts of the camp.” 

Numbers 11:1, 2

 

The Lord was with the Israelites and expected them to respond in faith but that’s not what happened.

Instead of trusting Him when things got really difficult they responded in unbelief and fear and that was evil

in the eyes of the Lord.

 

Possessing the land of Canaan was an impossible task. Giants resided there.

But no matter how impossible the task was the Lord wanted His people to trust Him. He wanted them

to be confident in His power, strength, and faithfulness.

Sadly, that never happened. The Israelites shrunk back in fear. Because unbelief and fear filled their hearts

they couldn’t possess what God promised them.

 

The Israelites couldn’t move ahead because they didn’t have faith. Instead, they were pushed back because

of their unbelief. And that’s what unbelief and fear will do if you entertain them. They will push you back when

you are supposed to move forward.

 

“Then the Amalekites came down and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country and smote the Israelites

and beat them back, even as far as Hormah.” 

Numbers 14:45

 

The Lord doesn’t want us to be pushed back. The enemy wants that. God wants us

to move ahead in faith. It’s faith in God that will allow us to defeat the giants standing in our way.

It’s faith in God that will enable us to tell mountains to get out of the way as we make our way to the place

God has promised.

Because God is with you,

you can move forward confidently no matter how hard the journey is, and no matter

how intimidating the enemy is. Don’t let fear and unbelief dictate your response to God.

Always respond in faith!

 

Bless you, friends!

 

Rolain

The inside job!

 

“So observe and practice all they tell you; but do not do

what they do, for they preach, but do not practice. “

Matthew 23:3

 

Jesus was speaking to the multitudes and his disciples about the

Pharisees. The things they did were so crazy.

 

“Now Jesus turned to address His disciples, along with the

crowd that had gathered with them.

The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in

God’s law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on

Moses. But be careful about following them.

They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it

into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all

spit-and-polish veneer.

 

Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer

shawls one day and flowery prayers the next.

They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking

in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance

of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting

called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend’.”

Matthew 23:1-9

 

They were all about the outward man. They

wanted to be seen, they wanted to be respected, and a whole

heap of other things but they missed something very

important – the inner man. They were not interested about who

they were on the inside. Let me share a scripture with you that

will bring more understanding of what I am saying,

 

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world-your mind and 

heart-put right. 

Then you can see God in the outside world.”

Matthew 5:8

 

How much time are you putting into working on the inner man?

How much time are you putting into changing the way you think?

How much time are you putting into developing your character?

How much time and effort are you putting into loving God with

all of you?

The Pharisees focused on the wrong things.

Because of that they missed Jesus.

If we are to grow in our relationship with God we need to take

more time focusing on the inner man.

We need to be real with ourselves about who we are and bring

it to Jesus. Where is your heart? Where is your mind?

Are you becoming like Christ daily?

Let’s not make the same mistake the Pharisees made.

Let’s get the inside man right first.

 

 

What’s the point of being in a position of power and influence

but you lie, cheat, steal, tear down people, and gossip??

Who are you helping if you have all the money in the

world but are rude, arrogant, brash, cruel, angry

all the time, unloving, uncaring and so on???

 

Let’s take more time working on the inner man. You are blessed

when you do that.

Bless you friends

 

Rolain

 

 

 

Is God’s kindness genuine?

Why is God good to us? Seriously…..! He is God and He can

do whatever He wants. No one would be able to put Him on

trial for His actions. So my question stands, why is He good to

us??

When we were meant to be condemned, He defended us….

When sin killed us, He sent His Son to deliver us….

When we stab Him in the back by our actions or

blatantly disobey He still forgives us and loves

us….

When we make mistake after mistake He is patient

with us….

When we think we are beyond saving , He saves us…

When we think, “this is it, there is no hope for me,

I really messed up,” He gives us another chance again

and again….!

 

Why is He good to us…!!!!!

 

There are a lot of reasons to explain why He is good

to us. He is God and He has His reasons and it is in heaven

where we will see the full picture.

But I want to share a verse with you that sheds a bit of light

on the answer to that question:

 

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness,

forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness

is intended to lead you to repentance?”

Romans 2:4

 

The last part of that scripture stopped me….

God is kind to me because He wants me to repent!!

This scripture was written to Christians so what was

the He really trying to say? As I see it, God could deal with

me any way He saw fit but He wants my heart. True

repentance comes from the heart and God’s desire is

that I draw close to Him. So He extends kindness

to me in the hope I will go back to Him. He wants me to

repent of the crazy things I have attached myself

to. He wants me to leave those things and follow Him!

That really ministered to me….

 

But before I go on I would like to make something clear.

God will extend kindness to us but He is a God of justice and

He hates sin and in His eyes sin must be confronted. He

will make us deal with sin in our lives. He will chastise us

and so on but He will also extend kindness.

He will not only use the rod on us or push us away

but He will also use kindness. Don’t take His kindness for

granted because it is not in vain. He does all those things

so we can make our way back to Him. Which way are

you running today? Are you running away from His

kindness, does it make you feel awkward? Accept His

kindness, it’s one of the things He uses to draw you

back to Him. He could use fear to draw

us to Him but He wants our heart. Don’t reject His

kindness….Repent before the Lord. Turn away from

sin. This is my call as well. There are things I need to

turn away from. My heart belongs to God and He wants

it, with nothing held back. What will you do?

Rolain