And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t and life can’t. The angels can’t and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow and the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39

I was just thumbing through the pages this morning hoping to find some inspiration. Just some words that might correlate with what I was feeling and I am thankful because God did not fail, me in fact he blessed me with these words that helped make sense of my thoughts earlier this morning. Here in Romans the word is speaking about God’s unfailing love for each and every one of us. That’s something marvelous to think about, we experience love from human beings and are overjoyed. How great does it make you feel to know that the Creator of all things, a being that is ever present and all knowing has your back. The script writer, the world’s greatest author, the top notch director is casting the scenes of your movie called life.

And nothing can separate you from this role, nothing can separate you from this director; and he has the role that is best fit for you.  But its a movie yall, which means their is going to be some ups, some downs and depending on the acting some bad and some good reviews. The director has the plan, he knows how this plays out so allow him to guide you. I love that the word speaks of our fears,  and our demons because these two things can constantly keep us from truly connecting with our purpose. But I look back to the scripture and I see the words “I am convinced”, like I believe with all my heart that nothing can separate me from God’s love. And if God loves me this much I know that no matter what valley he makes me cross, what horrible situations that may occur in my life, through my faith I will not only survive but I will flourish because of the trials he set before me. I can’t front like I am always convinced, sometimes we all have doubts. We want what we want or what we think is best for us. However, I am looking forward to being able to speak with such conviction. Peace and Grace be unto you!

The miserly man is like a fattened ox: he will give of his fat only when he has been deprived of his life.

Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. Psalm 33: 1-3

These messages get later and later this week huh. Excuse me, I have been trying to beast on these finals, I should be back to getting out the message before 10am starting next week. I am really excited because I am only one exam away from finishing my first year of law school. I really owe so much to God that today I just had to read a scripture that talks about giving praise. Today when I was done with my Constitutional Law exam I just wanted to say thank you, and I did. This was one of those valley classes. Often the material just did not make sense to me. I would read the questions in the book or hear the questions asked in class and be so confused that giving up was definitely a strong option.

However I pulled through and while I do not know the grade on my exam, I am just excited to be done with the class. My worst fear is that I would walk into the classroom on test day and not understand the questions on the final exam. I mean imagine that, you sit in class for four months and you have nothing to write about on the final exam. I kneeled down to the Lord this morning and was like please give me the strength and confidence in my abilities to take this exam and do well. Well I got in there and I wrote for the 2 and a half hours that the exam alotted, were they the right answers, I dunno. But either way I felt grateful that I was able to articulate myself and the material I sorta learned and I knew that was all because the lord was guiding me. I’m smiling for the rest of the day, I hope you are too. Peace and Grace be unto you.

We must do a good job, irrespective of race, and do it so well that nobody can do it better.

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 25, 2008

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. II Corinthians 4:17

Good morning, just the words that I needed to start off my day. Light and momentary, telling us that these dilemmas that we face are not that serious. We actually give power to our troubles, more than they were ever meant to have. The word the other day spoke about the unseen, because what we may see now can be hard to bear. But today the word tells us that those troubles are momentary, that they are temporary in nature no matter how big or small and how much they are consuming our lives right now. The sooner we stop stressing and just allow the trouble to manifest itself out of our lives, it will. Stop spending precious time and energy giving something power over you, when all you need is the power to get by. Interestingly enough this verse also speaks to me about the strength that we muster up while in the valley. When times are hard, when we face struggle, God is preparing us, making us stronger. Training us to deal with the complex problems of today, of the world we live in, and preparing us to combat the battles that we may face.

Opposition is needed, it makes us push harder, it strengthens our drive to achieve. Let Go and Let God as the song says and I am sure we will all be the dream that we wish to achieve!

And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gallatians 6:9

This verse was on my mind all last week and it continued into this weekend. The passage preceding it speaks about how we reap what we sow. If we are in the right we shall reap good things, if we are in the habit of doing bad things then that too we shall reap. But what about those of us who try to do the right thing and we keep getting “the jack”. Pardon my terms, but we keep feeling left out no matter how much right we do. And then we start to look at all of those who do bad and get good. We become envious of those who are living the wrong way because it seems that they know something we don’t because they are “achieving”. Well the verse says not to be weary, don’t get down on yourself because what you’re doing is right. And in due season, meaning soon you will reap the benefit of your good deeds, if you faint not. If you faint not, what that means to me is we will get our blessings if we keep doing what is right, if we don’t give up, if we stand as a testament to our faith rather than fleeing from it. If we fall off track and start following in the ways of those who aren’t walking along the right path then we wont receive what’s rightfully ours, the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us. I don’t know about the next person but I WANT you to get all of yours because I want all of mine! Peace and Grace be unto you!

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!