We Cannot See What Our Future Holds
It was a relaxing day, Father. Sometimes we need them to recharge our batteries. I didn’t sleep as much as I could have but old age can work against me sometimes, but such is life. May our time together bring something that will impact who needs to hear it.
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Recently I came across some writings that referenced a sermon that I had preached regarding Joseph’s life (the son of Jacob, i.e. Israel) in the book of Genesis. A big point in that sermon is that we cannot see what lies ahead of us in our lives. We are to trust in Your guiding hand on our shoulders, Lord, but no matter how great our desire may be, we cannot see what our future holds.
One thing for sure was that Joseph had his heart set on his heavenly Father. His earthly father, Jacob, loved him more than his many brothers and doted on him. Joseph’s own dreams seemed to point to a day when they all would bow before him. His brothers so greatly despised him that they barely refrained from killing when the opportunity arose, and only then because Reuben the eldest intervened on his behalf as they saw Joseph coming towards them. They didn’t outright kill him, but they did end up selling him into slavery, which could just have easily led to his death.
In spite of the circumstances in which he found himself, God blessed him, and he rose to prominence in his master’s home. Because of a false accusation, he was thrown into prison – but once again, God blessed him. Joseph rose to prominence under the leadership of the prison warden. He thought he found a way out when he helped one of Pharaoh’s servants understand that he would find favor in Pharaoh’s eyes once more but was forgotten and left to rot in jail.
Time and again he worked his way to the top only to be pushed back to the bottom. It would have been easy to become bitter or to have simply given up…but he didn’t. He clung to You, Lord. His destiny was in Your hands. He remained faithful to You, and You brought him through and used him to literally save the lives of thousands of people from the surety of starvation.
Could Joseph see where his life was headed? No, he just continued to trust You, Lord. He was greatly rewarded for his faithfulness. He was given power and wealth. He was reunited with his family – holding no animosity toward his brothers – for he saw God’s saving hand through it all. But…he didn’t know any of it was coming to him.
Watching his life unfold, it is obvious that his faith in God was unwavering. Through all the ups and downs, he held on to Him. If he had ended his days serving the warden in the jail, with none of his hopes and dreams fulfilled, I believe he would have remained faithful to God.
Lord, we really have no idea what our future holds but, without a doubt, we can trust You to bring us through and with our faith placed in You we can be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. May I find peace in You. May I be used by You. Amen.
(If you’d like to read the entirety of Joseph’s story, it is found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapters 37–50.)
(Jan 23rd, 2017, Mon, 6:41 am)
Jan 25th, 2023, Wed, 7:57 pm
Disassociation from the Insulation
A beautiful white wintery day! It was a change of plans to stay at home, but a blessing nonetheless. Thank You, Father, for the wonderful blessing of Your creation!
Romans 8:1-4 (<<click here to read the passage)
Our home was built in 1973. The attic insulation is not the more traditional pink fiberglass type, but it looks like shredded newspaper – something that was blown in. For quite a while we’ve had an issue, especially on windy days, with it coming down into our pantry. There were no gaping holes or anything, but somehow it was still getting in.
A week or so ago Karen was, once again, cleaning the insulation out and I had an idea. I got up on the step stool while the top shelves were cleared and could see a narrow space between the wall and the ceiling – just enough for the small particles of insulation to fall through. I jimmy-rig fixed it with duct tape! I covered that narrow space and then covered an open stud portion of it with cardboard and got it into place with duct tape as well! It isn’t pretty but you don’t see it. It has done the trick, though. We had some windy days last week and not a piece of insulation has been found.
One of my struggles while working on the project was that the insulation above my head kept falling in my face. I had to shimmy my arms and shoulders into the cavity, so getting out while holding my breath wasn’t easy! Fifty-year-old insulation full of dust and possible mouse residue requires immediate disassociation!
The thing is there were some pieces that didn’t want to come off so readily. In the end, I had to go outside and take my sweatshirt off and give it a good shake.
Paul clearly tells us that the law pointed out our sin, but it was powerless to overcome it. The only solution to the problem was for God to send his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. v3b NIV
I have an overall concept of what a sin offering is but wanted to narrow it down. On R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier website, I found an article entitled, The Sin Offering, that gave me excellent insight.
Sin is not an abstract concept but rather pollutes everything it touches. I was able to brush off some of the insolation but there was some I couldn’t see and now that I think of it more than likely minute deposits of who-knows-what are probably still on that sweatshirt! Everything that insulation touched became polluted.
In the Old Testament the only way to take care of that “pollution” – that sin – was a sin offering, but what the sin offering actually accomplished is better seen in the words purification offering. The sin offering purified the sanctuary; it removed the defilement of sin that occurred when the people broke the covenant. (emphasis mine)
Anything that that “pollution” came in contact with became unclean – the people, obviously, but also the tabernacle itself. So, the sin offering took care of the individual’s sin and, interestingly enough it also dealt with their unintentional sins and sins of omission as well.
Where an animal was required according to Jewish law, Jesus has now taken care of it once and for all. No more sacrifices. No more blood needs to be spilled. He gave of himself and now we can be forgiven. Where sin had polluted us, we are now purified.
Can I get an “amen”?!
Jan 22nd, 2023, Sun, 2:18 pm
Spiritual ADHD
Lord Jesus Christ,
Fill me with thy Spirit
….that I may be occupied with his presence.
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I have a cute kid on my elementary route that seems to be very bright. He is interested in tons of stuff and on at least a third-grade level knows a lot about those things. The challenge is that he is ADHD. The acronym stands for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and it is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active. This CDC description fits him to a T!
He got in trouble a while back for not thinking about what the result would be of an action and now he’s in a front seat where I can keep an eye on him. Really, he’s a good kid, he just needs help doing good things and avoiding not-so-good things.
There are a couple of other kids that interact well with him. Also, he likes to read and play with his Legos. Basically, he does well if he is occupied – especially if that occupation is contained to the seat he is in. If he’s kept busy and his mind is actively focused, for the most part, he does just fine for me.
The opening lines are a portion of another prayer (The Spirit of Jesus) from the Valley of Vision. It grabbed my attention in that I read it two different ways and both ways are applicable. My brain was drawn to a second meaning of the word occupied, though I don’t think the author meant it to be taken that way. Let me explain.
I think the author was communicating the idea that his desire was that the Spirit take up residence in his life and that He would use him in doing so.
The way I took it when I first read it, was that the Spirit would keep me busy and active in His ways. I may deal with a certain amount of spiritual ADHD. In certain areas, I have trouble paying attention to what He wants me to do. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have acted without thinking and then suffered the consequences of my actions.
I’ve spoken of it in recent writings, but I’ve struggled in this area and feel that setting up new habits of reading multiple spiritually-based materials and a time of quiet meditation under the Spirit’s direction have been helpful. I have halted early-morning distractions, that in and of themselves weren’t bad, but needed to be curbed and controlled. I needed to become occupied more with the things of God’s Kingdom and less with the frivolous things of this world.
The Spirit is patient and kind and I have benefited greatly under His tutelage. May I be occupied with His presence in line with both definitions! Amen!
In the same way the Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes [before God] on behalf of God’s people in accordance with God’s will.
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. Romans 8:26-28 AMP
Jan 18th, 2023, Wed, 7:17 pm
Is It Circumlocution?
I humbly sit before You,
I give myself to Thee
Please infiltrate my mind and heart
Show clearly what I must see.
Romans 7:14-25 (<<click here to read the passage)
Have you ever heard the term circumlocution? It’s a more technical word for speaking in circles. When looking at this particular passage I’ve thought that that is what the Apostle Paul is doing here. With all the doing and not wanting to do, and the not doing and wanting to, it’s felt that way. But when I looked it up and understood its meaning, that’s for sure not what Paul is doing!
Circumlocution is going round and round in a wordy way without ever getting to the heart of the matter. It’s an evasive style of argument, best employed when we really don’t want to say what’s on our minds.
Paul seems to speak that way, but he never hesitates to say what is on his mind! He is not evasive in the least! If it does seem to come across as if his words keep folding back on themselves, it is only because that’s how it works in our minds and hearts.
We’ve all felt it haven’t we? We want to live lives that are holy and righteous, but sin is around every corner to trip us up. We love when we are living in the center of God’s will! We love it when we can readily stop temptation in its tracks! We love it when we feel the Holy Spirit walking side by side with us all along the way.
But then, we get sloppy. A little thought here, another there, and then they start to gang up on us, and almost before we know what is happening (but we pretty much always know) we’ve fallen smack dab in the middle of the sin we had been trying so hard to not fall into.
We don’t want to, and we do. We do want to, and we don’t. And like Paul we exclaim,
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? v24
And this is where the circling words stop. This is where the answer is given, where any hint of hesitancy is eliminated, where any whiff of evasiveness is eradicated!
Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. v25a
He is most assuredly the answer but we all still struggle even knowing that the answer is right in front of us! It’s obvious, isn’t it? For even Paul follows up that last proclamation with,
So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. v25b NLT
The answer is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And when we glance away and fall, we must call out for Him, and in an instant, He is right there to set us aright, and off we go once more with Him forgiven and free to continue our journey forward!
All power to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Jan 17th, 2023, Tues, 12:32 pm
Sharks!
(Shark notice sign — Image by © 68/Stefano Oppo/Ocean/Corbis)
Father, thank You for the blessings of this day. A slated day off but it’s been a relatively relaxed day and I have gotten so much done – a home project and a good head start on things for Sunday. Bless our time together for Your glory. Amen.
Romans 7:7-13 (<<click here to read the passage)
Have you seen the Toddler Temptation Challenge videos? A tasty treat is set before a young child and mom says she’ll be back in just a couple of minutes. The thing is the child isn’t allowed to touch or eat it until she gets back. Sometimes children do as they’re told and other times they dive right in!
Many times, even as adults, it’s a greater temptation to not yield when someone tells us not to snoop or not to go into a certain room or whatever. If they’d never said anything about it, then it probably wouldn’t have even entered our minds to check it out. But tell us NOT to and that’s all we seem to be able to think about!
God’s Law is like that. Even pre-Ten Commandments, Adam and Eve failed their temptation challenge. This is how it went.
…the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NLT
Of course, the serpent twisted God’s words, then Eve added to God’s words and before it was all over, Eve sinned, Adam sinned…and now we’re all sinners…
All they had to do was say “no” and turn their attention to all that they could enjoy – which was everything else! – but nope they did what we all do and did the thing they weren’t supposed to do!
My Life Application Study Bible goes a little further. If we don’t know we’re not to do something (the Law) then we don’t sin, because we don’t think about it and we don’t do it. Our “flesh” – our sin nature – is drawn to all we should avoid…and there’s lots more than just one thing to avoid now!
When Adam and Eve yielded, they didn’t die immediately but they did eventually. In God’s original plan, they may never have died. But they sinned and the penalty was death. It is the same for us.
The Law is not wrong or evil, but it does what it’s supposed to do, it points out the wrong. It points out the sin. But the thing is, that’s all it does, it offers no way out of our condemnation. Or course, that’s where Jesus gloriously factors in.
But before we leave this post, we need to address our response to the Law.
My study Bible states,
Sin is real, and it is dangerous. Imagine a sunny day at the beach. You plunge into the surf, then you notice a sign on the pier: “No swimming. Sharks.” Your day is ruined. Is it the sign’s fault? Are you angry with the people who put it up? The law is like the sign. It is essential and we are grateful for it – but it doesn’t get rid of the sharks.
Be on guard. Jesus is the only one qualified to serve as our Lifeguard. If you’ve not done so, give your life over to Him. If you’re not sure how to do that, reach out to me. I’ll gladly show you how to find him!
Jan 16th, 2023, Mon, 4:24 pm