If you know the story below, bear with me, please!
This week in Bible study we learned about Joseph, youngest son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac, great-grandson of Abraham. He was his dad’s favorite son, but was despised by his brothers. They intended to kill him, but relented and put him into a cistern which happened to be empty. Some might say he was lucky! Later his brothers sold him into slavery. He was sold to some Midianites, but was later purchased by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. Some might say luck struck again! As a slave, Joseph prospered and was successful in everything he did. Potiphar trusted him and put him in charge of his household - a pretty high post for a slave - more luck? While he was there, Potiphar’s wife took notice of him and found him to be well-built and handsome. She propositioned Joseph for sex, but he refused. He knew his master trusted him and to do such a thing would jeopardize his well-being, plus “how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (38:9) One day he refused her advances when no one was around, and she grabbed his cloak as he ran away from her, then used the cloak to bolster the lie to her husband about what really happened. She accused Joseph of attempting to “make sport” of her (38:18). For this, Potiphar threw Joseph into prison. Some might say his luck ran out. While he was there, however, the prison warden put him in charge of the others- maybe his luck was restored! While in charge, one day Joseph noticed the downtrodden faces of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker, who had been imprisoned for their offenses. They each shared recent dreams with Joseph with the hope of an interpretation. Joseph told them, “only God can interpret dreams,” (40:8) and proceeded to share with them the interpretations God gave him to share. Three days later, the cupbearer was restored to his position with Pharaoh and Joseph asked only that he remember him. The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. (40:23) Bad luck for Joseph. Two years later, Pharaoh had two disturbing dreams and he could not find anyone to give him a satisfactory explanation of them. This is when the cupbearer was reminded of the young man in the prison. “So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.” (41:14) Joseph was in luck again! Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret his dreams, “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” (41:16) Joseph told him that Egypt would experience seven years of plentiful harvest, then seven years of famine, so severe that everyone would forget the seven prior years of plenty. Joseph suggested that Pharaoh appoint someone to oversee the preparations for the famine to come during the plentiful years. “So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. (41:41-43) How lucky is that! I was excited to find a 4-leaf clover, because it is a rare find. One in 10,000 is truly rare! I’m not big into superstition and such, so I did have to do some research. The idea of the clover being lucky, however, as a believer, is laughable to me. Do I need luck when I am walking with the most high God? Do you? A few weeks ago I wrote a post, “But God,” and each day I experience but God moments. When we read the story of Joseph, we can read it with a cultural or secular mind and view Joseph as lucky (or unlucky during a few instances) but Scripture tells does not say he was luck. Instead it states: “The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.” (Gen. 39:2) “But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” (Gen. 39:20-21) There is no mention of a 4-leaf clover in Joseph's story! The events described here took place over a twenty year period of time, and certainly there were ups and downs, but we are told in multiple verses that the Lord was with Joseph through the entire ordeal. We can say he was lucky, but it’s more accurate to say he was blessed and highly favored. Even during the low points, God was there. Joseph suffered the aftermath of his master’s wife’s lie, but in those days the penalty for this crime was death, but because God was with him, he was put into jail - what a blessing! We see evidence that Joseph walked with God and knew God’s hand was on his life. When he was asked to interpret dreams he didn’t just start talking - he said, “only God can interpret dreams. He acknowledged God’s omniscience from the start. In Joseph’s past, he had two dreams of himself in a high position with his brothers and parents bowing down to him. If we continue reading in Genesis we learn that this was God’s revealed prophecy. It didn’t happen overnight, and there was great suffering that took place in the years separating the dream and it’s reality, but during the entire time God was with him and was teaching him things that would be beneficial as he served as Pharaoh’s VP. Just as I have dreams and some unanswered prayers, I am sure you do, too. You may be suffering in some way. Joseph’s story gives me great hope. Seeing how God was with him helps me to realize that God is with me, too! And since He is omnipresent, He is with you, as well! As we lament over our troubles, our failures, and during our low points, we must look for the but God happenings because it certainly could be worse. We don’t need a 4-leaf clover, or a rabbit’s foot, or a dash of salt over the shoulder in order to receive God’s abundant blessings. We must love Him, trust Him and serve Him and He will never fail us. With God, we don’t have to worry that our luck will run out. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. In Him we can put our trust and He will never fail. Amen. I know this was long, but thank you for reading! Kim
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This week, I was invited to speak with a 6th grade virtual class about the characteristics of being happy. The teacher wanted me to do a segment about gratefulness. It was right on time since I have recently adopted a new favorite quote. “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” This statement is so true. It’s so easy to focus on our lack and fail to celebrate and give God praise for our abundance. This weekend, I am at my parent’s home. It’s been a while since I had this privilege. They have both been vaccinated with both shots and I have received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. This pandemic is continuing, but I am grateful to the researchers and their God-given wisdom used to develop a vaccine. It hasn’t had years of testing, but it’s had enough that the early data indicates success. Last week I buried a friend who died of Covid-19 and I also volunteered at a vaccine clinic. This vaccine is enough. I thought the entire quote was, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough,” but when I searched it on Google, there’s more. "Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." —Melody Beattie I’ve mentioned in recent messages that my family is moving and my panic about not being able to find a new home before we had to move out of our old home. We are in an apartment, and it is enough. It’s certainly smaller, but we are safe and we are together - it is enough. God has been good to us. We have found a new home and it is smaller than our previous home, but it’s certainly enough! We each had our own vision of the new house, and some of it was common, but not everything. It has been my prayer that God would provide the perfect new home. We don’t know what our future needs will be, but He does. I believe He has provided the perfect new home, in the perfect location. I can hardly contain my excitement! It has an awesome back porch that overlooks a spacious and private backyard. I am looking forward to outdoor entertaining and prayer gatherings that will not interrupt the neighbors. ~Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Thank you for reading! Kim Hopefully, you have a prayer circle - a friend or two who cover you in prayer, and of course you cover them in prayer, too. In our prayer circle we share our circumstances and perspective and we trust God to bring the situation to resolution. This week, someone in my prayer circle expressed to me the resolution she was praying would occur and it was in conflict with how I was seeking resolve. Well, who is right? Should my prayer partner pray in agreement with me or should she ask God to resolve it the way she sees best? I’ve written multiple times about prayer as an acronym for PRAY - Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield. When we pray we should first give God praise. We must thank Him for all of His many blessings both seen and unseen. We must repent of our sins. Everyone commits sin, intentionally, unintentionally, and sometimes we try to justify it, but it’s still sin. Until we realize it and repent, we cannot receive forgiveness and the further blessings God has for us. Once we repent we can go to God with the current situation and share our heart. We can share our feelings, our fears, and the resolution we desire. The last part of our prayer should be that we yield. When we yield, we acknowledge that we are human and we are flawed. When we yield, we acknowledge that our plans are in pencil, but His will prevail. When we yield, we say, “Thy will be done.” Jesus taught us to pray in the following way. “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ ~Matthew 6:9-13 In this prayer, we fully reverence God. We acknowledge Him as Creator, our loving Father, One who cares, One who knows, One who plans, and the One who judges. We say your will be done. We don’t know the future, we don’t even fully know the past. We know what we have seen, but God knows all. We can go to Him in prayer and try to bend His will to agree with our needs and desires, but this is not effective. Sometimes we know the resolution that seems best to fulfill our purposes, but we must realize that He knows best. We must go to God in humility and reverence that His plans will prevail.
Rather than asking for a particular conclusion, we should ask that He give us wisdom and discernment that we make decisions that keep us in His will. We should ask that He work to align the hearts and minds of those we encounter with His will, so that His will be done. God’s will, will be done. There is nothing man can do to change God’s plans. He has a plan for each of our lives and as we live we tend to take detours coming in and out of His will, making good decisions one day and bad decisions the next. We sin in new and inventive ways, but none of this surprises Him. He knitted each of us in our mother’s womb and He knows the thoughts we will think before we even think them. Our prayer life is an act of humility that acknowledges that we know our limited position in the world. Our prayers should not be to tell Him what we want, but to align ourselves to Him. A prayer circle is awesome, but the purpose is not that we all agree and seek to convince God that we have the best resolution. Our purpose should be that we each pray God’s will be done. We must acknowledge that He already has the solution and that He guide us to align with it. When He is finished His work that we will understand and rejoice regardless of whether He resolves it the way we would have preferred because we know that He is God and His ways are always good. Amen. This week, when you pray, pray God’s will be done. Amen. Kim I’ve been telling my children, “it’s a process, it’s a process.” And truly, so many things in life are just that - a process. At this point in our moving saga, I feel the Holy Spirit reminding me of the same. “Kim, it’s a process.” “It will happen.” “Be patient.” “I’ve got you in the palm of my hand.” “Just be obedient.” “Stay in My Word.” “Calm down.” “I love you.” “You are my child.” I haven’t always been able to hear or feel the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes now, I still become impatient and start trying to do things on my own. I am still being sanctified, I am still undergoing the process of spiritual growth. I am not a finished product, in the Lord. I can tell that through the years, my faith in God has grown. I became saved and was baptized at around 8 years-old, but I certainly was not complete or spiritually whole then. I attended a new member class in which we learned the layout of the Bible - Old Testament and New Testament, and what the large and small numbers meant on each page. We were taught a few memory verses then encouraged to continue to attend church and Sunday school, and to always try do good. One big thing I didn’t understand then was that once I made the decision to believe in God - once I decided for myself that God did, in fact send His one and only Son Jesus to die on the cross many years ago so that I would not have to pay the penalty of death for my own sins. Then He rose again on the third day as proof that He had defeated death and we could too - that I was saved forever. I didn’t know that once I believed this, my next step was to grow as a Christian. I thought that my every sin would set me back to being an unsaved person. Every week at church I was raising my hand while every eye was closed and every head bowed trying to get saved again. I wasn’t growing because I had not progressed out of spiritual infancy. One Sunday, well into my adulthood, a guest minister preached on the topic of once saved, always saved. Why hadn’t I known this? It was eye opening to realize that every week, for years, I had been getting saved for nothing - I had already been saved since I was single digits in age. It later began to make sense. Why would the God who created mankind want His precious Creation to perish? He loves us more than we can comprehend. He knows our nature and the thoughts we will think before we even think them. He knows we will sin, but He doesn’t want our sin to cause us eternal separation from Him. The first chance He gets, the first time we make up in our stubborn mind that He does exist and He is in control, and He does love us so much that He put His own Son to death on our behalf - that’s when He saves us. We don’t have to make every decision the way He would have us make it. We don’t have to be perfect - we cannot be perfect and without sin. He only created one man who would live a life without sin and that was His own Son, Jesus Christ. Once we are saved, we must learn to read the Bible so that we know and understand God’s plan for mankind. We must read the Bible so that we can see the exact words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. I was taught about the large and small numbers on the pages of the Bible, but I cannot say I actually started reading the Bible until much later - years even after I realized I was saved long ago. Once I began reading it and gaining a better understanding, the process of sanctification began. Sometimes I feel like I am well advanced in the process, but on some days, I am not. It’s a process.  I wanted to share this message today because in our Bible study, last week’s doctrine was Eternal Security and this week’s has been the doctrine of Sanctification. As we discussed these doctrines, I was reminded of how long I remained in spiritual infancy because I did not know that I had eternal security. It is my hope that someone today will also realize that they are saved - or decide that they would like to be saved, and take the needed steps. This is not a message to keep to yourself, this is for everyone you know. If you have never shared a post, this one is worth sharing. Amen.
Thank you for reading! Be blessed this week! Kim |
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