The passion that offended many…..

 

Don’t let another person’s lack of passion determine your passion!

 

As He came near to Jericho, it occurred that a blind man 

was sitting by the roadside begging. 

And hearing a crowd going by, he asked what it meant. 

They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. 

Luke 18:35-43

 

I was challenged by the blind man in this passage of scripture.

He was blind and needed, desperately needed a touch from God!

What challenged me was his passion. It was raw, uncensored,

untamed, bold!!

As a Christian in today’s world can we follow Christ with a tame,

steril passion, if you can call it that?

The blind man’s passion made people around him uncomfortable.

Look at what the word says,

 

And he shouted, saying Jesus, Son of David, take pity and have

mercy on me!

But those who were in front reproved him, telling him to keep

quiet; yet he screamed and shrieked so much the more, Son of

David, take pity and have mercy on me!

Luke 18:38, 39

 

He screamed and shrieked so much the more!!

 

Jesus was passing by and there was nothing and nobody who

would stop him from getting a touch from Him.

We need that kind of raw, untamed, uncensored passion

if we are going to make our life count for Christ.

Jesus is passionately in love with us so how can we give Him

any less?

Let us not allow other people to dictate how passionate we should

be.

Let us be passionate about our Lord.

He is the one after all who gave His life for us!

I want my passion to get His attention don’t you?

I want to live out my passion for Him and not just talk

about it!!

He is my everything and deserves nothing but the best!

Let us follow the example of the blind man!

Bless you friends!!

 

photo credit: Google images

 

Rolain

 

 

 

 

When life seems dark……

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

 

[What, would have become of me] had I

not believed that I would see the Lord’s

goodness in the land of the living!

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

be brave and of good courage and let

your heart be stout and enduring.

Yes, wait for and hope for and expect

the Lord.

Psalm 27:13, 14

 

My heart jumped when I read this scripture in

the morning. As we live this life there needs

to be an expectation!

An expectation that God, the Maker of heaven

and earth and the whole universe will be good to

us.

The world we live in wants us to believe that there

is nothing good in it.

It wants us to live in fear.

It wants us to believe the situation is hopeless,

that life is hopeless!

But it’s not true people!!!!

As believers we have God our Father!

As believers we have a chance, a very good chance!

God has good things in store for us.

God wants us to believe that!

He wants us to expect Him to show up!

 

If that expectation dies we die!

 

I don’t know what situation you are facing

today but please hope again. Expect the Lord’s

goodness.

 

This is what I have been declaring for the past

couple of days:

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet him;

You set a crown of pure gold on his head.

Psalms 21:3

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet

me.

You set a crown of pure gold on my head!

 

What are you saying? What are you expecting?

Today, believe you will see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living!

I believe you will see it if you expect it, if you dare

to believe that God is good and He is busy doing good

things for you!

The last part of that scripture says,

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

 

It’s not easy to hope especially when the picture

on the ground looks bleak.

It’s not easy to hope when the bank account is empty.

It’s not easy to hope when things are not working out.

 

But the key is to believe that you will see the goodness

of God in the land of the living!

In the pain, in poverty, when things seem bleak

and hopeless,

believe you will see the goodness of the Lord!

Amen and AMEN!!!

Rolain

 

 

She was barren but……

And there was a famine in the land, other than the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. 

And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you. 

Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 

And I will make your descendants to multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your posterity all these lands (kingdoms); and by your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, or by Him bless themselves,  Genesis 26:1-5  (Amplified)

As I write this post there are a few things I need to make clear.

It is clear from the scripture I just shared that Isaac had an amazing promise from God. The other thing I would like to make clear is Rebekah was the one God had for him. They were destined to be together. (Read the story of Abraham and the servant – Genesis 24)

But there is a problem. I saw it and was like what???

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Padan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.

And Isaac prayed much to the Lord for his wife because she was unable to bear children; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant. Genesis 25:20, 21

God had a great destiny for Isaac. His posterity was to possess the land and through his posterity the nations would be blessed but God gave him a wife that was barren….!!!!!

That stunned me. Why would God do that? He could of easily chosen another woman for him, a woman who was fertile, right. But no, He chose Rebekah who was barren!

At first I was stunned but I realised something. The promises of God must be attained by faith! It is only by faith we can obtain what God promised us. It is only by faith that we will accomplish what God has called us to!

Yes, Isaac could have married someone who was fertile but where would faith come in? God wanted Isaac and Rebekah to put their trust in Him. And as they did God answered their prayers!

You may be in the most contrary of situations but trust God.

– You may be poor and God has said you will feed nations. Don’t look at your present situation, trust God!

– You may be uneducated but God said you are going to get that job. Trust Him!

– You may have nothing in your hands right now but God has said you are going to do great things. It’s not about what is in your hands. It’s about what God has said and if you will trust Him!  So trust Him and watch what He will do in your life…..

God wants us to trust Him! No matter what we are going through we can depend on Him! Faith is the key……

Rolain

What happened when God said, Yes!!!

“They set out and went to Bethel to inquire of God. The people of Israel said, “Who of us shall be first to

 go into battle with the Benjaminites? God said Judah goes first.” 

The people of Israel marched out against Benjamin and took up their positions, ready to attack Gibeah.

But the Benjaminites poured out of Gibeah and devasted twenty-two Israelite divisions on the ground. 

The Israelites went back to the sanctuary and wept before God until evening. They again inquired of God,

 Shall we again go into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? 

God said, Yes, Attack. 

 

And they again inquired of God. The Chest of God’s Covenant was there at the time with Phineas son

 of Eleazer, the son of Araron, as the ministering priest. They asked, 

Shall we again march into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? 

Or shall we call it quits? 

And God said, Attack. Tomorrow I’ll give you the victory. 

Judges 20: 18-28

 

This is a very interesting story. It is interesting because,

The Israelites were told to attack the Benjaminites and only after the third attempt were they successful!

THEY SOUGHT THE LORD for direction and it was The Lord who

told them to attack!!!! God told them to attack and they got defeated twice…… A lot of people were killed

during the first two attempts! Was there confusion, yes! But God told us to attack, must have been the thought

on people’s minds. Did we make a mistake hearing God’s voice, must have been another thought. But this is the

point, God had told them to attack!

 

I didn’t get it at first. How could that be? How could God tell them to do something only to fail? I asked

God to show me the lesson He wanted me to learn from this story. The lesson is this,

There may be things you are trusting God for. You may have even heard Him say yes, but that doesn’t

mean instant success. There will be times where you will doubt what God told you to do. But there is a reason.

God wants you to trust Him.

Just because God said “yes” doesn’t mean no problems and trials, and challenges, and questions. Keep on fighting,

Keep pressing on towards what God told you to do. You may be in a place where nothing seems to be working.

Maybe God wants you to keep at it. Don’t lose hope. He has not abandoned you.

You may have lost a lot as you followed what God told you to do and you are now regretting stepping out.

Your story is not over. There is a reason you are going through what you are going through.

He can be trusted…..

Rolain

 

 

I see nations……

Last year I started speaking about how God sees nations when He looks at us. We were not put on this earth just to live for ourselves. The picture, the plan is so much bigger than we could ever imagine! Abraham’s story is an amazing one. In Genesis 17:1 it says,

When Abram was ninety nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).

As we read this chapter we see Abram who was 99 years old get an amazing promise. His life seemed like it was over but it was not. He was past the age of bearing children or so it seemed, but it was only the beginning….God was saying things like:

As for Me, behold, My covenant (solemn pledge) is with you, and you shall be the father of many nations. Genesis 17:4

And I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. Genesis 17:6

And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall therefore keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. Genesis 17:9

To the outsider it looked like things were pretty much finished. Abram’s life was almost over but that was not the case. God had a plan….What is also interesting to note is, yes God said He would bless Abram but God was thinking hundreds of years ahead!!! He had a plan for his posterity…And that is how God thinks. We see the same pattern in the life of King David. He had a desire to build a house for God but God wouldn’t let him because of the blood he had shed but look at the promise He made to him because he had the desire:

4 But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:

5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. 7 Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning 11 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

17 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.           2 Samuel 7: 4-17

Yes, He has a plan for you but He also has a plan for your posterity! I get so excited when I hear that God has blessed my children within me. I am just the beginning, the introduction to the real story that is about to unfold! I didn’t come from a Christian background. My parents brought me up the best they knew how, they even sent me to church when I was a child!!! I thank God for that. So in a way I am paving a new way, setting a new path. You might think its all over but don’t believe the lies. God has so much more in store for you. The other thing I would like you to start doing is seeing yourself as a nation because that is how God sees you!!!  God has a plan for you and your posterity. Your life is just the introduction to a much greater and wonderful story.  Let us be like David who prepared all that Solomon needed to build the house of God. David used the relationships he had, the resources he had to make sure his son would accomplish what God had called him to do. We need to do the same thing King David did. Even if you are single, what you do now matters. Let us look to God to help us………Amen!

Rolain