…trust the process

Psalm 145: 15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You,And You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Galatians 6:7-9 ⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ⁹ And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains,Seed time and harvest,
Cold and heat,Winter and summer,And day and night Shall not cease.”

Acts 1: 7  And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority

 

Let not my speaking in tongues and Pentecostal like behavior(no shade) fool you , as much as I believe in the power of declaration ie. speaking things into existence after all as he is so are we , I am also a strong believer in a strong work ethic. I am old school, I was brought up that way ..from a tender age my dad always told me if you are to do a job do it right the first time. Be it cleaning the car , watering the garden or weeding the lawn I tried to give it my all because believe you me when that old man came back from work and found a half done job you knew a hiding was in order and probably miss out on power rangers which started at around 1700hrs because you had to redo the job. So its now part of my modus operandi to walk the bit and trust the process , to believe that the more effort I apply towards achieving a certain goal the more rewards im likely to get. I know of no other way to conquer and subdue life besides trusting the process and mind you this is besides reading books like think and grow rich which encourage an overhaul of one’s thinking process or the richest man in Babylon which combines effort with wit ie. as much as you work hard you also have to be smart about it. But I admit at times after years of being diligent in one’s endeavors the light that’s said to be at the end of the tunnel becomes dimmer as years go by and the promised gold at the end of the rainbow becomes folklore. You begin to feel like the dreams you have set where maybe too high and unrealistic and unattainable. The question begins to resonate in my mind, was my Dad wrong? is the Bible ? Was Paul wrong when he says what you sow is what you reap, is there really such a relationship in life. Well I do know my dad could not have been wrong because his accomplishments testify to the validity of the principle and the Bible cant be wrong because its said to be infallible , but why then has my baby not been birthed yet, it seems I have been in labor for a while now. It was not until I came across psalms 145 and Acts 1 above that I understood the workings of life beloveds , it was never for us to know the seasons when God would come true on his word but ours is to trust he will and believe the words of the prophets when they say seed time and harvest time will never cease as long as the earth remains. As high as the heavens are from the earth so are his thoughts and ways separate and different from ours just keep working with all your might whatsoever your hand finds and trust the process remember we walk by faith not by what our senses perceive.

stay blessed

 

….predestination? is there such a thing

Psalm 139 : 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.And in Your book they all were written,The days fashioned for me,When as yet there were none of them.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;Before you were born I sanctified^[a] you;^]ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em- the 12th night

Every time I dare to contemplate about the issue of predestination and freewill the above line from Shakespeare’s twelfth night comes to mind , are some people really great from birth like no matter what life throws at them they will be great and the opposite like will someone be destined to be poor  . Do humans walk a paved plan or we are actually permitted to plan our walk on this earth . Matt Damon stars in a movie called Adjustment Bureau which taps into the idea that God has a grand plan for each and everyone and has angels running around influencing the decisions and the path we take on earth. I mean even scripture is rout with situations where it seems God already had his plan and the characters where just pawns in his chess game, are we really just dancing to the piper here. I have often asked my self why did God have to harden pharaoh’s heart when the Israelites wanted to leave Egypt or since Judas betrayal was prophesied by the prophets of old did he really have a say in his actions if it was set in stone from the start. The flip side of predestination is freewill, and the story of the first people seems to underline it , it seems as if they had a choice …God gave them options. But it also muddies the pot a little because if Eve really came out of Adam’s rib does it imply that the romantics got it right when they postulate the idea of THE ONE. Today’s scriptures though provide irrefutable proof that God has a grand plan for us for he tells Jeremiah that he ordained him a prophet whilst he was in the womb implying that no matter what that boy was going to prophecy and the psalmist echoes it by talking about our days being written before they have even occurred and what of this expected ending that Jeremiah talks about in chapter 29. Well brothers and sisters I believe that God has a blueprint of how we should traverse this earth but does not frogmarch us on that path , he has afforded us the freedom to choose. Just like how Jesus was destined to die for our sins but in the garden as his flesh got the better of him he asked if the yoke could not be allowed to pass or how Samson was destined to liberate the Israelites but his freewill nearly led him astray. I honestly think God has a bigger picture for all of us and its to give us an expected ending but I also believe he allows us to navigate through it how ever we want. A scripture comes to mind which sums it up for me well, it says all things are permissible for us but not all things are good for us …well those are my two thoughts on the subject what do you think?

 

Only the wise know just where predestination ends and free will begins. Meanwhile, you must keep on doing your best, according to your own clearest understanding. you must long for freedom as the drowning man longs for air. Without sincere longing, you will never find God– Paramahansa Yogananda

..unimaginable

Psalm 126:1 When the Lord brought back ^[a]the captivity of Zion,We were like those who dream.

1 Corinthians 2 : 9 “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Exodus 16:15 …. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

 

It took me along time for me to grasp what Jesus meant when he said have faith like a child and you will enter heaven. Wealth, past experiences and science have incapacitated the ability of humans to  believe God in the impossible.The more we advance in technology the more atheistic we become and its no wonder why some of the most productive and technologically advanced countries are the same ones with the most unbelievers. Oh how I miss the innocence of my youth , when I could look at the ocean and gaze in wonder at a God who instructed the waters to stop at just that particular inch of land . When I could go to bed confident that they will be food at my table in the morning , nowadays sleep does not even come worrying if I can meet the rent or pay tuition for my kids. We have limited God as a people , this is not the God we inherited from our fathers..somewhere along the way the teaching got skewed. It reminds me of a game we used to play as kids called broken telephone whereby you stood in a line and passed along a message which would have been whispered into an ear from one end to the other. More often than not the message was corrupted along the way , similarly to our faith in the 21st century. I think the other reason we now have more confidence in science than God is because we don’t fully understand that which we believe in , we are no different from those people in Athens who had a placard written to an unknown God. Brothers and sisters today I am going to go against the tide and am looking for one or two people to join me and to help me start a revolution, I STILL BELIEVE IN MIRACLES. I believe the level of faith you have in the ability of God determines the abundance of your providence , just like Aaron was told you shall eat according to your anointing. What Christ can still do brothers is unimaginable , Paul articulates it better in Ephesians when he says its above and beyond what we can even hope for or imagine. Implying that if you have heard about it before or seen it with your eyes or even dared dreamed about it God can surpass it to such an extent people can mimic the Israelites and say MANNA(what is this).I have seen people God has blessed being accused of witchcraft or corruption after God was done with them, may that be your portion today.  Just believe, ..he is able to make you unrecognizable to your peers and family ask Joseph. All im asking of you today at this moment is for you to forget you have a degree , a PhD or what have you , for you to be willing to be called crazy or even be laughed at and trust in my God with all your heart mind and might, believe you me you wont be disappointed…your mind would be blown away.

1CORITHIANS 4:20 ⁰ For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

 

…home

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Psalm 91: 1-7He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”³ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the ^[a]fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.⁴ He shall cover you with His feathers,And under His wings you shall take refuge;His truth shall be your shield and ^[b]buckler.⁵ You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,Nor of the arrow that flies by day,⁶ Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,And ten thousand at your right hand;But it shall not come near you.

 

So this couple of weeks I have been meditating on the book of Psalms and I happened upon one of my favorites of Davids writings and it got me pondering on the issue of where one resides, our homes ..our lairs , the place we feel most at ease. The wanderers have no fixed aboard like our Lord Jesus Christ whilst the romantics claim wherever they are with their loved ones becomes home and the wealthy..well they have a number of plush comfy homes in all the leafy suburbs. But no matter how your house looks like , be it a two storey mansion, an apartment  , a bungalow or a shack the expectations of what a home should provide are the same from the owner regardless of the location of the homestead. We were each attracted by different things to the neighborhoods we chose , it could be because of the low crime rate, prestigious reasons or simply that is what we could afford. What If I could tell you they is an affordable neighborhood close to where you live which is plush, safe , cheap and of cause upmarket…to good to be true right. Have you ever imagined why inspite of the alarms, the sensors and the electric fences you still see an individual being restless and not finding sleep in their homes whereas the tenant renting a one roomed house in the worst of the worst sleeps so soundly and peacefully you would think he is dead , it should cause one to wonder about how we should build our homes and where. Recently as a nation we experienced cyclone Idai and mind you some houses where not blown away they withstood the wind , so at times the foundation on which your home is built plays an integral part when it comes to protection from the elements, why not build it on the rock of ages like that wise man Jesus spoke of in his parables. No matter what blows outside your gates you know your foundation will hold because it was built on the ancient of days. David lived in the wilderness and he lived also in a palace, he experienced both lack and plenty by the world’s standards that is so I believe he is the right person to advice us on the right suburb to live in.  A few chapters back in Psalm 84 he boldly declares that he would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than be in the world , imagine a whole king saying that, when he had sinned and the prophet gave him choices as punishment he chose pestilence because he said Israel would rather suffer in the hands of God , I believe he knew something about God we do not know yet. So brethren I appeal to you by the mercies of God that its not about location where you can build a good home but its about who is in your heart when you build it….maybe the romantics were right, home is where the heart is afterall and as today’s scripture aptly puts it if you dwell in the secret place of the most high, under his wings, it means fear becomes a thing of the past regardless of who your neighbors are so before you google the crime rate, income range of your neighbors make sure your heart and God’s are one trust me you will sleep better at night

stay blessed

….calmness

Habakkuk 2: 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.Though it tarries, wait for it;Because it will surely come,It will not tarry.

Psalm 46: 10 Be still, and know that I am God;I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

Calmness is the cradle of power….Josiah Albert Hollard

 

Hie again, today I get the opportunity to share with you guys something I learnt from a sermon given at a certain church I gatecrashed two weeks ago , he spoke about delays in life. It takes a certain kind of maturity and incredible faith in the Lord to remain defiantly calm whilst your whole life is up in flames , I mean while your dreams are stagnant and beginning to look unattainable or even crazy. Have you ever had a what was I thinking of moment , how on earth did I dare believe I would be there by 35. I am one of those guys who had his whole life plan blown away before it even took root. imagine thinking that by 25 you will be done with your first degree and by 27 you assume you are driving and 30 married only to have two years added to your degree because the examiners thought I had inadequate information to be unleashed onto the world as a finished product. So to say I am impatient by nature is an understatement, I saw friends living the life I dreamed and I feel I have to play catchup but the hours in the day are preventing that and coupled with a declining economy and bad breaks. Many a times a I feel like cursing God, why me??? gosh if only I drank and I would drown my misery . But It is at such times that you appreciate Habakkuk’s prophecy that the vision will happen at the right time it wont tarry , God is never late ..its us who are always in a hurry, to marry , to have kids , to have a job ,start a business etc. Society has placed such a burden on us and we feel we have to fulfill the world’s prophecies over our lives forgetting the expected ending God promised in Jeremiah. If ever they is a commodity laking in the lives of today’s youth its calmness, patience ..the ability to trust God no matter what. To be like Peter who could enter into  deep slumber in a prison cell such that it required an angel to slap him awake or David to be anointed King at 17 but start his reign at 30. If they is one thing I pray for from God its calmness in the midst of a storm , the ability to be still and trust in his reign over my life. How we behave during delays plays a crucial part in who and what we will become in the future , are we like Saul who thought Samuel was late and rushed to do the sacrifice and thus losing his throne or we are like David who refused to kill Saul when he found him asleep in a cave..you choose the path you want in life, to be David or Saul . Delayed gratification is the answer , i believe the God who began it in you will bring it to completion,,don’t panic be calm and remember: ships don’t sink because of the water around them , ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Dont let what is happening around you get inside of you and weigh you down..

 

be blessed

……being saved, my struggles

ROMAN 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

ROMANS 12: 1-2 I beseech^[a] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your ^[b]reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:31¹ I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

The christian community is the most judgmental and prejudiced group of individuals I have ever met..me included , which is probably what prompted Gandhi to say I like their Christ but not the Christians themselves. Islam is thus far the fastest growing religion in the world mostly because we fail to emulate the man we claim to have built our faith on. We scrutinize too much and are unwilling to let people into our close knit community, we are content with our numbers and dont what to upset the status quo , yet Jesus meant for the church to be out going. Oh my I digress,  today in line with Easter I mean to talk about being saved , which is in line with the last instruction given to us by our Lord before he departed( as you know in Africa we respect the last words of the departed). It took me long to understand why I still harbored thoughts about sex and pornography or why my appetite for alcohol persisted even after I had done the sinners prayer. Didn’t Paul say I am now new , why then do I still feel like smoking and having sex with my girlfriend. Jesus says it best , if you are not sick you have no need of a physician meaning the church is a clinic where people are being treated until they are cured. We all know that a patient doesn’t jump out of bad the first day we give him his medication nor do the doctors expect it but that the process is gradual. I was telling my friend the other day when he mentioned that they were too many people who sleep around and drink in church today and I told him it should be like that because they are being saved , we shouldn’t discriminate or judge them for Jesus doesn’t  which is why he ate at Matthew’s house a tax collector or didn’t stone the woman who was caught in the act of adultery .Dont get me wrong I am not encouraging debauchery in the house of God but understanding from the elder brothers unlike the brother in the story of the prodigal son  who did not welcome his saved sibling, allow God to work on his people.. the more we teach them the more the bad traits become fewer and fewer and as someone looking in a mirror the more they mimic Christ and become what you expect from believers. I believe on your day of repentance the spirit is saved first by believing and confession then comes the soul(mind) through renewal and study of the word of God but the flesh is saved last and it takes longer , imagine a guru in the faith like Paul still saying I die daily.. saving of the flesh is a continual ongoing process beloveds. So in conclusion I encourage those who are being saved to not feel disheartened at slipping continually they are work in progress and for believers to be more loving and accommodating  as our Savior Jesus Christ was..remember as he is so are we. Jesus loves you as you are …let no one tell you differently, with your whoring and drinking he is still crazy about you.

 

Time travel….

Friend, teacher, mother and a pillar to cmfz

Ecclesiastes 12: 1Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,Before the ^[a]difficult days come,And the years draw near when you say,“I have no pleasure in them”:

Ecclesiastes 12: 8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,“All is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 9: 7 Go, eat your bread with joy,And drink your wine with a merry heart;
For God has already accepted your works.

Psalm 90: 12 So teach us to number our days,That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

SO MUCH TO DO YET SO LITTLE TIME .. Cecil John Rhodes

 

I have found that loss of a loved one makes philosophers of us all and hence rightfully I find my self dwelling on the writings of Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes as he tries to explain the reason of our existence on this earth. Procrastination is the reason we wallow in regrets and what could have been on our death beds, absence of fond memories to fall back on is what drive most into depression and being suicidal. The capitalist society has made us become so engrossed in making as much money as possible at the expense of human friendships and interactions but if you find yourself in a position  like the rich fool and the angel of death comes for you just after you have amassed all your wealth without yet having enjoyed a single dime you will be filled with regret and mimic the preachers word when he says all is vanity. Four years ago a friend invited me for dinner at her home because her husband & herself found my company amusing she said  but for some reason I took a rain-check and life happened such that I was always occupied in the rat race until the owner of time took that friend away…in hindsight I realize I gained nothing in assuming they was plenty of time still to engage in dinners and parties. I now appreciate that time is a finite resource which we do not even have the privilege to know how much of it we have left , if only God could teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Jim Carrey once starred in a movie called the yes man and I pray that becomes our attitude from hence forth , the will to say yes to everything and make memories with loved ones. To paraphrase our main scripture , If they is anything you want to do..anything at all on your bucket list do it now for regret is a painful emotion. So brothers and sisters if they is someone you love tell them now …send a text , if you feel compelled to do sky diving or what have you,  start making plans today and do it, for  we are pilgrims and living on borrowed time. God bless you all.

…it will be well again with you

Psalms 90:15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.

Deuteronomy 33: 25 Your sandals shall be iron and bronze;
As your days, so shall your strength be.

Jeremiah 32:15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” ’

1Samuel 30:6  Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was ^[a]grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

 

Over the years I have realized that being born again does not protect you from the troubles of this world nor does being prayerful act as an insulator to the storms that inevitably arise the longer you live on this earth. If you are given an opportunity to talk to David this day , the man who was after God’s own heart he would tell you that  had it not being of the Lord he would have perished in his distress at Ziglag . Men wanted to stone and kill him for the loss of their wives and property and a lesser man would have given up and died but not David, the Bible says he strengthened himself in the one person who had never let him down, the Lord.Brothers and sisters may it be a lesson to us as believers in this century in which we are plagued by unemployment as youths, corrupt leaders in office, rising costs of living , incurable diseases , demonstrations and all sorts of natural disasters to not be overwhelmed and give up but to stand and find strength in the Lord as the patriarch David did , it will be well with us. Paul says these things where written to us for our learning and as thus I urge you brothers  to take heed. I know this message is not palatable especially if you are in strife, 2019 has not been a good year for me too but a friend once said look not at what you see but at what you know from scripture. The Bible says his strength is made perfect in our weakness and that his grace is sufficient for our needs…believe that with me beloveds. Today’s article is more of an exhortation than a teaching really and I had to borrow from the verses I keep for tough times, like when the Israelite were in captivity in Babylon and the man of God had the guts to tell people that houses and vineyards will be bought again , even in a land without its own currency and a soaring inflation it will be well. The same God who said through Moses in his final benediction that as thy days are so will be thy strength will give you strength to weather any storm in your life,  you are equipped for this don’t stress. In conclusion I pray that my father in heaven may make you glad according to the days you suffered affliction like he did for Job and for David ..amen !!

 

 

 

….its a virtue

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE NOT A VICE 

Joshua 14:10 ¹⁰ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel ^[b]wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.

2 Samuel 5:4  David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

Isaiah 55:8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

Patience is a desirable trait that is elusive even to the best of us. Premature gratification is the order of the day, what with instant coffees, instant noodles etc..our generation wants stuff immediately. Better man than me failed because they lacked this quality, talk about the first King of Israel Saul who could not wait for Samuel to arrive and offer the sacrifice, need I mention Hananiah who disagreed with Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70yrs in slavery in Babylon. This morning I placed myself in Abraham’s shoes soon after receiving word from God that I will be the father of many nations and deciding to share my good tidings with my nephew Lot. Imagine the ridicule and jokes that would have been made at my expense as years , became decades with no child in sight  even one out of wedlock. I believe being Abraham I would begin to question whether I had heard from God truly or I was a schizophrenic, I would become disillusioned and bitter. Patience and faith are conjoint twins, you cannot have one without the other and its particularly important to us brethren considering to our maker a day is like a 1000yrs and vice versa ,you will abandon the faith without it. The reason most of us are rush and lack the ability to wait on God is because we think God behaves like us , forgetting that he sees things differently , he has a clearer view of our lives than we do . In fact we might have a brain herniation if we tried to fit God’s thoughts into our cortices , we cant fathom or comprehend how he plans  or works but thankfully Jeremiah preempted our worries and told us that what ever God plans its for our good. Caleb was quite young when God gave him a word but it took 45yrs for the word to bear fruit..imagine how it might have felt all those years barren but having already received a word. Being shown a vision does not translate to gratification, it might take time…even David had to wait, anointed king at 17 but 10yrs later he was living in the wilderness not in the palace. Dont let you current position make you doubt the word God spoke over your life just remember the patriarchs who preceded you who were patient and reaped a thousandfold. Stay blessed and listen to Bill

 

…yes its possible

Joshua 7: 3-4   And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” ⁴ So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 

 

1 Samuel 4: 3 & 10-11  So the Philistines fought, and Israel was ^[d]defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹ Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to ^[b]buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. ⁸ Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

TO LOSE OR TO FAIL DESPITE BEING BORN AGAIN AND SPIRIT FILLED.

The above is a continuation of my title , yes its possible and before you get all worked up and start shouting heresy give me time to plead my case. Today I am going against the tide and have to warn you that today’s message is not meant to make you feel good its not a motivational talk but a sober one I think. I believe its possible for a born again’s business to go bankrupt and also that believers get sick  sometimes or that their plans dont always come through. I believe today’s ministers are packaging the gospel wrongly to the populous , no wonder we have so many bitter and disgruntled Christians in our midst ,  because they were  promised a rosy journey by those who ministered to them first instead of a rosy ending, an expected ending as God tells Jeremiah. As much as you can do all things through Christ remember also that we prepare for the battle but the final outcome belongs to God. At some point the children of Israel were losing in battle and they thought bringing the ark into the battlefield will tilt the tide to their side but the Bible tells us they lost and even worse the ark was captured. The ark represented the dwelling place of God, or the essence of God so imagine losing whilst he is among-st them. Lest I be accused of basing my argument on one scripture, allow me to bring your focus on Joshua for a minute. The man whom God told no man will stand before him and he ended up getting a hiding from the people of Ai. Of course many factors were involved but it doesn’t take away the point that Israel lost, the chosen ones of God. The Apostle Paul is responsible for two thirds of the new testament but even him got an ailment that he asked God to heal three times and got nothing. They are many instances in scripture which supports my hypothesis but the loss or failure should not make one doubt God’s abilities…but rather someone should believe in the expected ending and that all things including those we recognize as failures will work together for our good. His thoughts and his ways are higher and different form ours, he sees things differently but its always for your good.  Stay blessed.