Redeem The Day

Today is a gift from God.

And I am not talking about the date of today. But I am talking about “TODAY”

Whenever you read this that will be your today and it has significance.

It’s a second chance to do things right. It’s an opportunity to try again where you have failed.

It’s an opportunity to wipe the slate clean.

You may have messed up yesterday but today you have another chance to do things

differently.

Read what 2 Corinthians 6: 2 has to say about the importance of “today”

“For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,

And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day

of salvation.”

In other translations it says, today is the day of salvation.

Today is the day of God’s favor and

Today is the day of salvation

Don’t allow yesterday’s mistakes and sins hold you back today.

Repent and allow God to speak to you anew today.

And He is speaking.

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:7

If you need forgiveness, today is the day to receive it.

If you need a second chance, today is the day.

Today is a gift from God.

Receive what He has for you today.

Bless you friends

Rolain

The “Gifts” God gives us…..!

I don’t know where to start and I don’t know how to begin this post. All I can say is that the word “gift” has

taken a whole new meaning for me. A few months ago I found out my friend, was leaving the country for good! We were first friends, then he became my boss, then pastor, then mentor, then family!

My world turned upside down that day. I had people leave before and it was painful but this, this was a whole new level.

My pastor’s wife called me and sat me down as she told me the news. I was devastated and confused. Why God I asked?

This can’t be happening I thought. I had known my mentor’s family for over 10 years! I knew them when they

had their first son. They have four boys now and I love them to bits.  Anyway I remember going to God and

crying out to Him for answers to the question why. Nothing came. Instead revelation came……

 

God showed me how they were gifts from Him. I met my mentor when I had just met The Lord. I am a sinner

now but back then I was much worse. If there is a word worse than sinner I was it. I was truly lost. I had no

direction and no plan. I had crazy issues I was beginning to work out. I had just became a Christian and this new

life was still…..new! I was dealing with a lot of things. I had no confidence and I had no self esteem. When he

employed me a year after meeting him I stole money from him! It was that bad. I WAS that bad! But thank God he never fired me or called the police. He gave me a second chance…….

 

I didn’t trust anyone back then and when he tried to help me out I would think he had some evil intension! When he disciplined me at work I would take it personally. When he made a joke about me I would get extremely angry. My stuttering was so bad back then which didn’t really help things! So believe me when I say, things were bad back then, really bad!!!

But God used him and his wife to mold me into who God wanted me to be. They taught me so much. They stood by

me when I had family issues. They helped me out financially countless times. They sat down and taught me so much

about God and life. In one of the darkest times in my life they were there.

 

God showed me how that was not an accident.

He knew all the change that needed to happen in me. He saw all I was going through and because of that He sent them

into my life. They were gifts. We serve a God who is the giver of gifts but the mistake we make is thinking gifts come in the form of money only. That’s not true. God’s gifts are so much more than money. They are deeper than that. During that time I never thought of them as gifts. We had our good times together and we had hard and difficult times.

 

The fact of the matter is this. God sent me gifts in the form of my mentor and his family. I just didn’t know it at the time and I never gave them the honor they rightly deserved. I wish I never took them for granted. I wish I honored them more and thanked them more for all they had done for me. I can’t put into words all that they did for me. A lot of who I am is because of their input in my life.

They saw so much potential in me and stood by me patiently. They are my family. I am telling you all this because….

…….they left on Wednesday this week! It’s been a hard week I must admit. They had my back. But in the midst of the pain God showed me how He will bring other “gifts” into my life after all; those “gifts” came from Him. He is the giver of all gifts. My mentor and his family never willed or planned to do all they did for me. God was behind it all. My mentor never knew the kind of impact he would have in my life but God did because He planned it. God was behind it all……

Yes, I am sad and broken at them leaving but I am also at peace because God has some amazing “gifts” in store for me.

I pray I be a “gift” to someone else as well. Would God use me to be the kind of “gift” my mentor was to me……

 

Have you acknowledged the “gifts” God has put in your life? There is a reason He has placed them in your life.

Don’t take them for granted. Thank them for all they are doing for you. It is not easy for them. There is always a

sacrifice on their part. May we always appreciate the “gifts” God has given us, always!

 

 

* This post is dedicated to the Stewart family. *

The Stewart family!

 

Rolain.

A Christmas tale about a broken bridge…..

Christmas is around the corner. I love everything about Christmas, from the carols being played all around, the spirit of giving, the joy, the food, the weather, kids waiting in anticipation for their gifts from Santa, the Christmas trees, the Christmas decorations and more……I could go on and on. Christmas is about all those things but it goes deeper than that.
To know and understand the real meaning of Christmas we need to go back a few thousand years to the time of Adam and Eve.

They lived in harmony with God. They had an amazing relationship with God. God communed with them on a daily basis. Everything was perfect until the enemy deceived them. The bridge between man and God was broken and it looked like the enemy had won. Man no longer had direct access to God. The relationship that man had in the garden of Eden was broken. The communication line had been severed or so it seemed. The intimacy was lost. Man was truly abandoned or so it seemed, but………

God had a plan all along. His son Jesus was the embodiment of that plan. Jesus came to repair what had been destroyed. He came to restore a long lost relationship. Because of what Jesus did we were restored. Because of Jesus we were saved. The enemy who thought he had won found out he actually lost the battle! He was defeated. The bridge was repaired never to be destroyed ever again. Man could finally come freely to God.

This is why Christmas is so important. It’s not just about Santa and all the other things I mentioned. It’s a reminder to us about a relationship restored. Realize, the bridge has been repaired. You and everybody else can come to Him. He made it possible and this is what Christmas reminds me off. I have been challenged to engage God more starting this Christmas, actually starting now leading to Christmas and after. The world needs to know the bridge has been repaired. The lost need to know, the lonely need to know, the abandoned need to know. When Christ was born it signified a start of something new. Things would never be the same. It is true for you as well. Because Christ came and died for you things will never be the same for you. You are in a better place. And Christmas is a time to remember that. The bridge has been repaired. Christ is waiting. You can come to Him any hour of the day. Bring your worries to Him. Bring your pain, bring everything to Him. He is waiting for you to come to Him. Re-establish communication with Him. This is a call to us all. I am reminding myself! I have let so many things distract me from Christ. When I could of prayed I watched television, or hung out with friends, went onto Facebook, picked up a novel, got lost in my own thoughts……I did everything but spend time with Him. But the bridge has been repaired and Christmas reminds us of this. Will you heed the call? Will you focus on Him, draw near to Him?

As I end I would like to leave you with a statement that really spoke to me from a fellow blogger and friend. She hit the nail on the head when she made the statement. Here it is:

The
world makes us think that presents
and gifts are essential in Christmas
season, but the truth is, Jesus
didn’t come to just give us another
festive season, He came to give us a
life that is full of wholesomeness,
awesomeness and happiness.

Rolain

Life after “No”.

I was watching a talent show on TV which was very interesting. What was interesting about it were the comments judges were making about the people who were auditioning. I didn’t agree with a lot of the comments that were being expressed. I really felt for the people who were being shot down. They were being torn down by the judges. Some left the stage crying while the judges were laughing. That really got to me. Those judges don’t seem to realise that they are holding people’s future’s in their hands! You may think I am a bit extreme in what I am saying but think about it.

A person who thinks they have a gift goes for an audition but gets told they should never use that gift ever. They get ridiculed and joked at and probably get told to do something else.
Yes, there are people who should not venture into somethings because they are just not good at them. But this is what I am trying to get to, are the judges qualified to tell those people what they are good at or not? Are they credible?
In life we go around allowing people to tell us what we can do or can’t do but are not credible! They may have qualifications but that doesn’t make them credible. Let me be bold in saying that there is no one on this earth who knows the real you, no one! You are not even credible to tell yourself what you are good at or not! You have a more intimate knowledge of who you are compared to anyone else but you are still not credible to make a decision about what you can do or can’t do. What I mean by that is, you don’t know your real potential so be careful when you start drawing conclusions about what you can or can’t do. God is the only One who is credible because He created you. He is the only One who can tell you who you really are.

My conclusion is simple. Don’t allow people to define what you can or can’t do. There is hope after the “No”. Listen to the positive comments that come your way. But be very cognisent of the negative comments that come your way. A question to ask is, are the authority voices in my life credible to tell me what I can or can’t do in my life?
Is a teacher credible to tell me what I am good at or not?
Is the coach who tells me that I am useless really credible even if he is qualified?
Can a music teacher come to a conclusion that I am not musical?

If you have kids, beware who is telling them what they can or cannot do. You need to protect your kids from people who are telling them the wrong things. Your voice as a parent is the one they listen to so use your power wisely. Build them up by speaking positively. Tell them they can achieve whatever they desire. Draw them to who God says they are.
Your role in their lives is so important. Don’t take it lightly.

As I end I would like to ask, what have you being told you can’t do? What dreams have you abandoned because someone told you “No”? They said you could not do it.

It is time to make a decision and pursue your dreams.

Rolain.P