What We Learn From Joseph

There was a dreamer.  He had crazy dreams that indicated he would be something big.  His family would bow down to him, even his father the great Jacob.  Jacob wrestled with God.  Jacob saw stairs coming down from heaven with angels ascending and descending.  Jacob was named Israel because he had wrestled with men and God.  He did not like that his favorite son was having these kinds of dreams.  But Joseph was born from Rachel and Jacob worked 14 years for his cheating father-in-law to have this women.  He got her after 7 but he promised to work 7 more for Laban.  Joseph was not very esteemed by his brothers.  They did not like their baby brother's dreams.  They did not like his fancy coat that their dad had made for them.  Joseph was treated differently.

 God again and again picks the younger son to rule over the older. Isaac over Ishmael.  Jacob over Esau.  Joseph over his brothers.  And even Josephs youngest gets a better blessing then his oldest (Joseph does not much relish it).  God's plan for the younger sons is one of first-born right.  This is a pattern in the scriptures that does not end with Joseph.  Moses is younger then Aaron.  David is the youngest.  And then their is Jesus.  Jesus is called the second Adam.  He inherits the kingdom of God.  

So what does this mean for us?  We (most of us) are gentiles.  God made his covenant with Jews.  But we are grafted in to the tree of life by faith.  We are real heirs to the promise Abraham received because Abraham is the father of the faithful.  Jacob acted like a first born.  When his father refused to give him what God said was his, he took it from his brother by faith.  When Joseph was exalted above his family in Egypt, he acted as the first born and saved them.  David became King and destroyed his enemies and gave his son Solomon great peace so that Solomon could build the Lord the temple.  And Jesus came as the chosen one to save his people from the sin that the first Adam plunged the world into.  Firstborn rights have some firstborn responsibilities.  We are co-heirs with Christ.  This means that we must act like children of the promise.  It means that my life should  reveal Jesus.  It means that we walk worthy of our calling.  What does walking worthy mean?  We find our examples in the scriptures.  We find instructions in the Scriptures.  We find patterns for our life, in the Scriptures.  It is here that our minds are renewed.  Here that we learn the stories that should shape us and guide us.  When we are betrayed, we remember Joseph and say with him, you meant it for evil but God used it for good.  When our enemies surround us we remember David and the deliverance that God showed to him again and again.  We remember Jacob wrestling with God and receiving the promise.  When we stand before kings, we remember Moses and God's promise to give him the words to speak to Pharaoh.  These people in the scriptures are our people.  We learn from them by seeing their story in our story.  We look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith as we find trials surrounding us. We remember.     

Joseph was envied.  Envy leads to murder.  They threw their brother in a pit.  They tore his special coat.  They sold him for the 20 pieces of silver (Jesus was betrayed for 30).  What do you think he thought of his dreams as he lay in that pit, betrayed by his own people?  When he was sold in Egypt he was sold to the captain of the palace guard.  Potipher entrusted all to Joseph.  He was betrayed again by Potipher's wife.  He was again thrown into a pit.  He was in prison for a long while.  He was dead for a number of years.  But God exalted him even in prison.  Joseph's dreams would come true.  He would be exalted above his family and they would bow down to him.  God is faithful to do what he promises.  Joseph is also an interpreter of dreams.  I think we can safely say that he knew what his dreams meant.  Two men are thrown into prison from the Pharaohs courts.  One the cup bearer, one the baker.  Both these position are ones of great honor.  They have dreams.  Joseph interprets the dreams and in return asks to be remembered.  God remember me.  The one that you gave those dreams to.  Remember the promises that you made to me.  And to this cup bearer he asks to be remembered.  He is not remembered for two years.  Pharaoh has a dream.  It is a bit more like a night mare.  No one can give him the meaning of this dream.  Joseph is remembered.  He stands before Pharaoh and shows him what the dreams mean.  He is given Pharaohs ring, the ring that gives him complete authority over Egypt.  Joseph is remembered.  And he is the means that God uses to save his people.  He is a savior.  He is a Christ to his family, who will become the nation of Israel, and to Egypt.  His family comes and bows to him.  Joseph feeds them when they are hungry.  He saves them when they needed saving.  He gives them land not just any land but Goshen, the best land.  

There are so many deaths in this story.  But each one is followed by a resurrection.  This is one of things that we remember when we are in the pit.  God remembers His people.  God makes good on His promises.  Death is never without a Resurrection.  Joseph was 17 when he was sold as a slave into Egypt.  He was 30 when he stood before Pharoah.  That is a long time.  May we remember his story when we are in a pit.  May we remember the beginning, the middle and never forget the end.  God is faithful and brings saving life out of our trials.  And if we are faithful like Joseph, we will be an abundant blessing to those around us!

Bed Time Stories

When the lights go out at the close of our day, the lights in my childrens head experience a new life.  God tells us to talk to our kids.  Here are a couple stories that I told my special little people as their heads rested on their pillows.

Story 1: loving who God made us to be

God brought all of the animals before Adam.  He brought them in bunches.  One boy, one girl.  One boy hippo, one girl hippo.  One boy horse, one girl horse.  One boy bear, one girl bear.  One boy unicorn, one girl unicorn.  What do you think Adam noticed?  "That he was alone."  He was missing something.  This is the first time in the creation story that God says, "It is not good....."  It was not good for Adam to be alone.  God put Adam in a deep sleep.  How did God make Eve?  "He used Adam's rib."  Yes indeed.  How did God make Adam?  "I do not know."  From the dust of the ground.  God gave Eve to Adam to be a help meet.  "What did she help him with?"  She helped Adam tend the garden, she was the one that  would have the babies and care for them when Adam was at work.  She was to strengthen Adam for the days work.  It is God's plan from the beginning that little girls should be helpers.  God has us called to be life givers.  We should want to help.  We should protect life.  We do this when we see what our little brothers need and help them.  We do this when we do not play fighting games with our brothers but find ways to bless and honor them.  We do this by respecting their desires.  We do this with our words.  What we say will build up or tear down.  If we find that we do not want to be a helper, we go to God and ask Him to put that desire in our hearts.  We go to Him and ask Him to open our eyes to what others in this family need.  We go to Him and thank Him for our brothers.  We go to Him and ask Him to put His desires in our heart and make them our desires.    

Story number two: fear

Yelling, "Mom, Mom, Mom."  Yes sweetie, what do you need.  "I am scared, I do not want to be alone."  This is the thing, you are never alone.  Their will be times in your life when I will not be their.  But God will always be with you.  He can protect you in ways that I cannot.  He is your God and He watches out for you.  Listen to this story:  Jesus told the disciples that he was going to leave them.  They did not want him to go, they wanted him to stay.  Jesus told them that he would send someone to them and it would be even better.  They did not believe this.  Jesus left them and they panicked.  They hid.  They where scared.  When they where hiding what did they accomplish?  "Nothing."  When they where scared, who where they thinking about?  "Themselves."  Fear is not a sin.  But it can cripple and blind us.  We have to obey when we are scared.  God sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples in the form of flaming fire on their heads.  "You are making that up."  No, it really was fire on their heads.  And God put this fire in their hearts.  And it is this fire, the Holy Spirit, that is in you now.  We have the same spirit in us.  "How can God be one but be in you and me at the same time?"  Because God is omnipresent, this means that he is everywhere.  "How can he be one and have bodies everywhere?"  God is not flesh but spirit, so he can be everywhere.  Remember that obedience gives you strong muscles.  It is what will make your path straight and it will light your way so that you will not stumble.  There are things on this road that will be hard and scary.  When you come up to a big dark hole on this path, you must jump over it and continue on.  You can be scared but you need to look down the path and see Jesus there shinning the way for you.  It is not ok to sit down and look in the whole and spend time focusing on what is down in the pit.  It is so easy to sit down and shake with fear for the hole that is before you.  But you must get up and look ahead to Jesus and jump over that hole.  Stay on the path, keep moving.  And know that God will never leave you nor forsake you.  He is with you when I leave your room.  Go to Him.  He wants you to tell Him when you are scared.  Go to Him and ask Him to calm you down.  And remember that He made everything, so there is nothing to fear. Love you and good night.

These are the stories that I told to two of my children tonight.  I love talking with them.  Reminding them of who they are as they close their eyes.  I love the opportunities that night-time brings.  My kids have questions at night that never come out in the day.  They have confessions, fears, stories, attitudes that come out before they go to sleep.  Sleep is a death.  You lay down, close your eyes as the world around is dark and your eyelids reiterate this.  Dark, horizontal, closed eyes, stillness.  This is a type of death.  You look a bit dead when you are sleeping.  And the morning dawn brings new life to us.  I love that my children clear their heads before this nightly death.  They get rid of sins.  They test out some crazy theories.  They ask questions that take some bravery.  They accuse in very pointed ways and remember offenses in tender ways.  They tell their own stories.  I love how many good talks we have had.  I love that God is letting us fulfill His command to teach our children as they lie down.  It can get long, but it is all relative. And I love that my children live boldly and honestly.  Night time is story time here and I pray that they remember the lessons they have heard.

Things Learned

Our table was in the corner of the kitchen.  The table was pushed up against the wall.  At the end of the table was her chair.  She had some shelves near her chair.  Her bible, prayer book, holy cards and cigerettes where on these shelves.  She said that I was the best coffee maker.  I loved making her coffee.  She drank it black.  She loved eating green bananas and the peels of oranges.  She devoured books; she finished a couple a week.  She did not cook except for Christmas fudge that she passed out to the parish, lamb cake that she made for each kids reconciliation, gingerbread cake, and cookies with nuts in them.  Eating cookies growing up does not hold a happy place for me.  After taking out all the nuts, not much was left.  She learned to drive when I was in fifth grade and my dad made her a licence cake to celebrate.  She was a horrible driver.  Her domestic habits where strange.  She cleaned with straight bleach.  Her fingers cracked and the bleach did not help.  She was complicated.  She loved Vogue magazine (for the fashion).  She never wore makup but got obsessed with Mary Kay discount lipstick.  We threw away so many tubes of lipstick after she passed away.  Passing away is a strange thing to observe.  It is easy to tell when someone has gone.  It was Christmas Eve and we knew that mom had no idea what day it was.  She hated being the center of attention.  She did not like having anyone making a fuss over her. Christmas Eve is a day of anticipation.  We knew that when they pulled her of the ventilator she would not make it.  But I did hope. I was wrong. I wanted that miracle to happen.  It did not.  She was in so much pain.  So young, so beautiful, so amazing in so many ways.  Gone.  I cried.  Partly because she was home.  Partly because she no longer suffered.  Partly because I desperately wanted  her to come back.  She was still.  Her chest no longer heaved.  I remember going to see mom at the hospital.  One time I went to see her and when I turned to go in her room, she was not there.  Devastation hit.  The nurse rushed to me told me that they had moved her.  Big sigh of relief.  She was drugged while on the vent.  Once she woke up alert and pulled the tube out of her throat.  That was the last time that happened.  They kept her heavily medicated and strapped her hands down.  Mom was a fighter.  I was proud of her for pulling it out, and I scolded her at the same time.  She had a smile that she gave when she knew she was being a bad girl.  I loved that smile.  I was pregnant when mom was in hospital.  Mom had shingles.  The Doc in the ICU thought that it would be best if I stayed away for awhile.  He did not want me to get shingles because it could be dangerous for the baby.  Life growing in me.  The one that gave me life was dying and I could not see her.  Mom was rarley aware of what was going on.  She was often asleep.  When she had wake times we gathered around her so that she new she was not alone.  We never wanted her to wake up without one of us there.  Often she thought she was in the hospital because she had had a baby and would ask for her baby.  She sometimes saw things in the corner of the room.  Other times she was aware of her great discomfort and the thirst she felt.  We would swab her mouth out and try to relieve a little of her thirst.  There where posters on the wall of her grandkids.  We all watched the monitor.   I told my  OB what the hospital Doctor had said me about my mom shingles.  He said that it would be fine to see my mom.  I left quickly and felt so relieved that I could see her and hold her hand.  When I got there no one else was in the room.  This was rare.  I took her hand and her eyes instantly locked on my mine.  It was a gift.  One the biggest that I have ever received.  She knew who I was and she was not confused at all.  The way she looked at me  melted me instantly, so much love, so much affection swept over me and she looked so peaceful, so relieved to see me.  She missed me too.   I treasure those moments.  My mom grew up catholic.  There are lots of varieties in the catholic church.  My mom had a hard view of things.  We talked about God and the Bible so I was blessed to have many good conversations with her.  Jason led a bible study on Matthew with her.  I remember talking to her once about heaven.  She thought that she would spend a whole lot of time in purgatory.  She told me that you where never to be sure of your salvation.  That this confidence was a sign that you where not saved.  We talked about grace.  And I do think that she ended up agreeing with me.  Working things in and working other things out though takes time.  And we often go to default mode when things are hard.  It was nearing the end of her life.  We all new that the day would come. 6 months on life-support is a long time.  June to December.  Those where some of the longest months of my life.  I came to visit her and she was alone again.  I touched her and she opened her eyes.  She looked so scared.  Fear in a dying body is sad.  "Mom, are you scared?", she nodded her head yes.  "Mom, do you love Jesus?", she nodded her head yes.  "Then you do not have to fear." Her face relaxed and her eyes closed.  She woke up a couple days later ready to go home, ready to see Him face to face.  And I have the gift of knowing that God gave her rest even before she died.  That He made His grace known to her in a way that gave her the strength to walk through the shadow of death.

Nation Building

I have nothing to say about who I am voting for or if I am voting in the upcoming election; I am still undecided.  I will obviously not be voting for Americas idol, Obama.  But that is about how far I have come in deciding what to do. When I asked Jason what he thought about Paul Ryan and whether he thought that Paul made Romney eligible, he said, "who cares."  We laughed and then Jason went on to tell me what he always tells me about politics....politics do not matter much.  Gasp and revolt but know that this is what came from his mouth.  If Rush where listening what would he say, what would he do.  I love listening to talk radio around election time.  It has the same feel as a soap-opera.....drama, death, doom and a whole lot of scandal.  I get tense when I submerge myself for to long in the dark land of talk radio.  I often need to come up for a breath of fresh air and remember that our view is not limited to this earth.  We christians walk differently, we have a different view.  Our eyes look up and remember that all that is going on in our nation is small in comparision to the sky and what is beyond that sky.  We remember that it is this sky that Abraham looked up at and had faith in God. We remember Jacob seeing a ladder in this sky.  We remember the magi looking up and knowing that the Messiah had come.  We know that we are in a story and it is God's story. We remember in that in this point of history we are something more then Americans getting ready to make the biggest decison of our lives (vote or don't vote).  We remember who we are in Christ.  We remember our citizenship in heaven.  We remember that however we vote (or don't vote) should be done to the glory of God giving thanks to Him for our wonderful country.  This should also be a time where we go and seek God's blessing on our nations behalf, knowing that it is He who rules here.  Nation building is done by God, not men.  It took God turning Nebuchadnezzar into a cow to learn this lesson!!  May all we do be done to the glory of God.  And happy deciding as we enter this election period!!

Getting Bumped Into (I am sure that I am not a bumper!)

God made people.  He started with one man, this was "not good."  He made Eve.  They got together and low and behold they had children.  These children had some children. Then (grab your seat for this one) these people that where born from people, they had some people of their own.  I am hoping that I have utterly shocked you.  And I must continue on in the same shocking way to let you know that this has been going on since that the day way back in the garden  when God made Adam.  The thing about all of this is, we are people and we are around a bunch of other people.  This gets pretty messy.  People bump into one another.  We get bumped into and we do a fair share of bumping ourselves.  Jason is doing a sermon series on Colossians and wow is it good!!  I know that it is good because I have been blessed to sit in one place three Sundays in a row.  Anyone else know the glory of this?  Praise be for snacks that keep my Malachi happy and quiet during the sermon.  Anyway, this series in Collosians has been so good.  And one of the main points today was about this little problem of running into one another.  It is a problem don't ya know.  I have been bumped into and let me tell you, it is not a picnic.  I mean can you believe the nerve of some people!!  Back to the sermon: church is full of people and people run into one another.  Paul exhorts the saints in Colosse to bear with one another in love and thanksgiving.  There are many things to be said about bearing with one another but the gist is,  it is not pleasant or easy.  We are to strive for unity.  We are to suffer long with one another and we do this all in thanksgiving because of the gift we have received in Christ. And it is good to remember that the person that bumped into you is a saint.  Yes I did say that they are a saint.  Treat them this way when they forget it.  Treat them this way because when we are ugly (yes, we are bumping into others all of the time as well) God treats us this way.  In fact, we are numbered with the ones that yelled, "crucify Him." Remember that we love Him because He first loved us.  Remember that you where at enmity with God.  God came when we where a bunch of dead bones and breathed His living breath    into us.  We are to treat the brethren with humility knowing the gift that we have received.  When we are bumped into, be kind and suffer long, cover it with love, for your brother or sister.  If you have been doing some bumping, go and seek forgiveness.  Christ has died that we may have peace with Him and having peace with Him means that we strive to the utmost to have peace with one another.  And remember that you bump into your husband and children the most.  Learn this in your home.  Model for your children.  Have peace in the home and joy in the fellowship that God has given you in His Son.

In This Manner Walk

There was a man.  He would become the father of many nations.  But we meet him unmarried.  He finds a wife; she will stumble kings with her beauty.  He moves away from his family, away from his homeland to a land he does not know.  He takes his nephew with him.  He is faithful to his own.  He will send a servant back to his family in the future.   I do not imagine that leaving was easy.  But God told him to go and where to go and Abram obeyed.  He was promised great things would come from him, that the earth would be blessed by him.  Walking with God is not for the faint of heart but Abram is no ordinary man.  God brought him out under the stars and told him that his decendents would be as the night sky, innumerable.  Abram believes God and it is credited to him as righteousness.  This is a great story!!  It has so many elements of an epic.  It continues in the same fashion.  Abram becomes a mighty prince with great wealth.  Kings make treaties with him.  Kings pay him tribute.  He has an army that is competent to fight against mighty kingdoms.  He is loyal to his family and rescues Lot in a great battle.  He talks with God and even gives advice to the Almighty.  But in all of this, Abram has no heir, no son.  He is old now.  His wife is way beyond the childbearing age.  But again he is promised a lineage.  Abram gets a new name.  Sarai gets a new name.  And they are promised that a year from this appointed time, Sarah will give birth to a son.  His name is to be Isaac.  Abraham is the father of nations.

We are told in Deutoronomy to teach our children about God.  We are told we are to teach them when they wake up, when we are out and about with them in the day, and we are to talk of God when they go to bed.  They are to know this story of Abraham.  They are to know it so that they will walk with God like their father Abraham did.  Abraham is the father of the faithful and we are the faithful.  His story is to guide us, to encourage us, to remind us that we are apart of a greater story.  Do you not see the irony in the above story.  God promised Abraham that a great nation would come from him.  But Abraham has no children.  Generally nations are made of people.  But Abraham believed God.  He believed him again when God tested him and told him to sacrifice his only son.  Abraham got up early and went to the top of a hill and made an altar.  When his only son asked where the sacrafice is, Abraham tells him that God will provide one.  Little did Isaac know that the altar was made for him until his father grabbed him and bound him and put him on it!  But God spoke to Abraham and told him that he had passed the test.  A goat was provided and Isaac was spared.


This story is to be remembered when we walk through times of unrest.  Maybe it is our health that is at war with our flesh.  Maybe it is money troubles.  Maybe it is job transition.  Maybe we have moved or someone we love has moved away from us.  Or, we have lost someone dear.  Abraham walked in faith.  Where is eyes could not see, faith did.  He is our template.  And he is our template because Jesus was his.  Jesus is the ultimate Abraham.  He obeyed His father perfectly.  When things look hopeless, remember Abraham.  When you cannot see how the promises of God will be fulfilled in your life, remember the greater story.  Ask for faith.  Ask for more faith.  And keep on asking!  We are to walk by faith, always.  Why do you wonder at your trail?  Are you not promised trials?  I remember Jesus telling the disciples that trials are apart of following him.  But then we stumble when this promise comes our way.  Jesus says, follow me.  Jesus says that following him comes with trials.  We say, yes we will follow you.  We receive trials.  We wonder what in the world is going on.  Why are things so hard?  Why does it seem that I am having so many hardships?  Wow, it boggles me that the word is so little in us.  Know the word, love the word, go to it and remember the stories.  Remember Abraham, he will point you to Christ.  Remember Joseph as a slave, he will point you to Christ.  Remember Moses cast out of Egypt, he will point you to Christ.  Remember the wanderings in the wilderness, they will point you to Christ.  And the list goes on and on.  Get the right stories in your head.  Teach them to your children.  Bind them in your heart.  Be so full of them that the are the lenses that you see everything through.  And take heart when troubles come your way, for they are promised.  And remember what comes after them and from them..... resurrection life.  Death and resurrection.  Death and resurrection.  Death and resurrection.  This is your pattern.  This is your guide in hard times.  Walk worthy for you are headed somewhere.  You are daughters of the Most High and heirs accordingly.  We are the seed of Abraham, we are the chosen people of God.  We walk in our unrest with certainty of our heavenly citizenship.  This should strengthen us and embolden us.

Bible Study #1

I want to start a little Bible study here.  I am currently in a Bible study at my church and it leaves with me with much to chew on.  I want to start a little blog bible study to help me flesh out some of the ideas that I am meditating on.

Lets start with the book of Isaiah.  This book can read like a tragedy if you just pick it up with out context.  But this book is apart of a greater story.  This book is one full of promises: promises of judgement, promises of restoration.  This book holds so many prophecies about Jesus's coming.  About the savior coming to save His people.  There is so much to unpack here.  I want to point out one comparison that is going on.  Jesus will save his people and he will do it in a way that no king of Israel could do.  Israel wanted a king just like the other nations.  God said it was a bad idea because it was idoltry.  He was their Lord and they needed no other.  But they insisted.  So God gave them what they wanted, gave them over to their desires (as Romans 1 says).  They nation put their trust in this king.  And they started to act like the nations around them.  This was a bad thing.  You will always imitate who you worship.  And if that someone is a Mannesah, then you are in serious trouble.  Israel had found a savior.  And they where very happy to mimic the other nations.  The nations around them had gods. But these gods where wrapped up in their monarch.  Now Israel is just like these pagan nations. The thing that the book of Isaiah makes very clear, the thing that God had been saying all along to them is, you still need a savior.  I gave you a king and it did not work.  I am your God.  You are my people.  And it is clear that God is telling them that the kings are not the way.  The kings are not the deliver.  For these kings ended in exile.  These kings failed and pointed to the one, the only one, that could save Israel and deliver her.  Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.  He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.  Uzziah, Jotham, Manessah, and Hezekiah where the kings of Judah during Isaiah's ministry.  Uzziah was a great warrior and made Judah strong, yet he needed Jesus and failed the people as a true deliver.  Jotham continued to be a mighty man like his father but did not take down the high places, he was not the true King but he needed  the true King to save him.  Manessah was a rascal that led Israel into unthinkable sin, in a crisis (being captured by the enemy) he humbled himself and called on the Lord to deliver him, and God did deliver him!  Hezekiah was a man of faith and walked before the Lord in strength.  Yet he sinned in a way that led Judah into captivity, but he called on the One that doesn't mess up, that always saves and God came and extended his life and postponed judgement on Judah.  What do make of this?  Kings need the King.  Mighty ones need the Mighty one to deliver them.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the kings.  God did give Israel a King.  They wanted a king, and God gave them Jesus.  It is almost as if the theme of the garden is back in this story.  You see that tree, don't eat it of it.....yet.  You see those other nations with their kings, that is not for you......yet.  God wants us to see that He is our all in all.  God is the one who gives victory in battle.  When we forget this, we act like Hezekiah in his pride and show off how awesome we are.  We can see the irony in Hezekiah's story.  Hezekiah has a great battle with Sennacherib of Assyria.  God utterly defeats the mighty men of Assyria using His angel to cut them down.  Other nations hear the stories from this great battle and want to come and meet the famous Hezekiah who's God is mightier then the mighty Assyrians.  Hezekiah is pleased that Babylon has come to see him in his splendor.  He shows them all of the things he has acquired failing to give the glory to God.  Babylon is greatly impressed with Judah and its treasures.  And it is this nation, the nation that comes to admire and praise Judah  that later comes to take her into exile, no doubt knowing where Judah keeps her most precious treasures.  This story is a good reminder to us to give glory to God in all things.  When we have a good day at work, we thank God for it.  When we achieve academic success, we thank God for it.  If our children are obedient and pleasant, we thank God for it.  If our marriage is the stuff that dreams are made of, we thank God for it.  The kings continually point to Christ.  They point to him because in their victory, there is God delivering victory to   them.  They point to Christ because in their failings, there is God lifting them back and restoring them to fellowship with Him.  And we are to take these lessons and remember them in our victories.  We  are to remember them in our failings.  God be praised when life is good.  Sing to Him in these times, praise him, thank him, bless others.  God be praised when we fail.  Repent and thank him.  Manessah was restored after  sacrificing his sons to his gods.  But when he humbled himself before the Lord, God lifted him up.  When we fail and fall before God, He lifts us up.  This is  a little side note but one worthy of study.  When we lift ourselves up, God brings us down.  Manessah lifted himself up.  He wanted to be worshiped.  God took him and thew him into exile.  Manesseh then gets on his knees and repents and begs God to forgive him and show him mercy.  God bends down and picks manessah up and restores him to the thrown.  The way up is down, the way down is up.  I think Doug Wilson said it that way.  And the story of the kings in the book of Isaiah constantly testify to this.  As soon as these kings get puffed up, God brings them down.  As soon as these kings repent and humble themselves, God lifts them up.  

We need to copy the good that we find in these 4 kings.  We need to know that we will have blessing and victory if we follow God.  We need to know that when we forget God, he gives us over to our sin so that we can call out for him and enjoy restoration.  In all of this we see that God is at the center, even when we forget him.  He does not forget like we do.  He does not forsake, as we do.  He wants us to want Him.  He wants us to glorify Him.  He wants us to relay on Him and acknowledge Him in all things.

The King that we live under has no spot nor blemish.  He is the King that we are to mimic.  He is the King that is our King.  We are his people and we are to walk worthy of such an awesome King!!

Blessings to you on your journey!

Gaunt and Loving It

There is a table spread.  Great care has gone into the making of this feast.  There is a Lovely Lady handing out invitions, calling to all who are hungry, calling to all who are simple, to come and dine with her.  This table  is not just symbolic.  This table is God's table.  This is a table of joy and fellowship with the Maker of all things.  He wants to feed your hungry soul; He wants to make it fat.  This table is a way of life.  Who you eat with is important.  I think it is safe to say that it is what makes you who you are.  Food goes inside of you and bestow something to you.  It makes the hungry full.  It makes the thirsty satisfied.  It nourishes and strengthens you for the days work.  And at God's table, you eat heavenly food.  This food is for the soul.  This is food prepared by Him and it also goes inside of you and changes you.  It makes you more like Jesus. It gives you the strength you need to fight the great fight.  It gives you wisdom for the tasks at hand.  It gives peace where there is no peace.  It is heavenly food.  It makes the soul fat.

I cannot help but notice that skinny is so in.  Images of sunken cheeks overwhelm the covers of most magazines.  These women are wasting away.  We put them in pretty clothes, air blush them and then we are told that this is beautiful.  The problem is, too many of us listen to this message.  We need to take care what table we long for.  God's table of fat souls or skinny appetites that long for too little.  Too little on their bodies, too little in their souls.  We need to start listening to the Lovely Lady, to Lady Wisdom.  Two very different women inviting you to very different feasts.  One feast leads you to Christ, one to worldliness.  This is only extremely sad when christian women are tripped up by Lady Gaunt.  Lady Wisdom promises fullness and joy in God.  Lady Gaunt promises that your worldly desire to be envied will be satisfied.  One is full and one is empty.  Oh that God would send His Spirit and fill us with the desire to thirst after Him.  We need to be fed,  we need to sit at a table.  What table are we found at?  Are we at His table but looking at the feast of carrots and cucumbers and envying it?  May we be found at His table, eating His food with thanksgiving and laughter at the joy we have.  Here is to the full life, to the fat soul.

Blessings,
Erin