Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his fathers funeral. But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became afraid. Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him, they said. But as Joseph told them, don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you. As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. Genesis 50: 14-15, 19

What a rich scripture this is, I first read it days ago but I was not ready to embrace it at that point and attempt to decipher what it meant to me. I am so amazed by the grace of Joseph that I do not know where to begin. His faith is so strong, how often are we faced with people who attempt to sabotage our very existence? Whether this be at work, school, your love life; far too often people’s actions can have a great impact on us and for a short time negatively affect our lives. Since a child my mother has always told me “vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord”! Listen to Joseph, “Am I God, to judge and punish you”. We have no right nor do we need to judge those who trespass against us, their own conscience does it for them. Look at the fear of Joseph’s brothers, they are afraid because they know that they have wronged him. By not judging, by not taking these situations into our own hands we are sowing good seeds into the earth. If we followed the eye for an eye rule; a. we would all be blind, but more importantly we would sow bad seeds of karma into the earth for ourselves. We are responsible for our actions so even though we were wronged; by retaliating we only restart the cycle of wrongdoing. Making ourselves vulnerable to yet another attack and this time a rightfully deserved attack.

His faith amazes me, because he has set his faith in our creator and took the hardships that he was presented with and now sees them as good. The rough road that you are traveling may seem rough now as it did for Joseph but one day we will look up from the mountaintop and remember when we were down in the valley. We will stand tall from the balcony of a skyscraper and remember when we walked amongst the streets, confused and angry at the situations life had presented. We will stand and be thankful because the evil that others had tried to bestow upon us; that bewildered us for a time will be made good. Because we endured and believed in our Creator we will be able to look back at those blemishes and be thankful for that journey. We are not the judge, so let us let go of the ill harbored feelings that we have towards those who wrong us, their own conscience is eating them up already. Let us get deeper in our faith and understand that we are being blessed, we will be blessed and that God will turn our hard times to the most joyous occasions we have ever experienced. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Reputation is the shell a man discards when he leaves life of immortality. His character he takes with him.

February 19, 2008

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NLT

This is a familiar message that we often hear but I often struggle with. There is a season for love, a season for pain, season for growth, it’s said that things happen in seasons, for reasons and some things last for a lifetime. None of us are mad when it is a joyous season, when the reason was a good one, and a lifetime of happiness would be something to marvel at, wouldn’t it. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case because there are other times when we will be confused and weak and ask God why did he bear such a burden on us. They say God will not put a larger burden on you than you can bear but when you are going through the valley before you reach that mountaintop, that burden can feel like a lifetime of bricks and adversity.

Like I said I have issues with the seasons at times; my mother says it’s because today we don’t have patience, and we want answers to questions immediately. I will give her that, but even more of a lesson is to look right within the word and find stories of the people of God and the tribulations that they dealt with. In the end they were victorious, blessed with more than they ever imagined because they remained faithful. So no matter what your season is right now, good or bad, lets remain faithful so that we can reap the blessings the Lord has for us! Peace and Grace be unto you!

– No sin in looking prosperous just your way of showing your faith in the Lord, showing him you’re ready whenever he is!