He Did it AGAIN!

Okay, so, this morning, it happened again - God got my attention and, again, when I was least expecting it!  This morning, I woke up around 5:30am with the intentions of sharing with you what I learned about Joseph in my Bible study.  I typed about half of it when Luke woke up at 6:00.  Luke and I played, read some books, had breakfast and then when Daddy woke up, I headed to the track for my quiet Sunday morning run.  I have started to really look forward to this alone time and now I will look forward to it even more....

So, like I said, I left the house with a blog written half way (saved but not published). Usually, when I run at the track, I listen to the Bible Study lessons on my phone while I run and when I hear things that I want to make note of, I will walk and type them on my phone.  Well, this morning was no different, I started out listening to Jane talk about God's Purpose as she read scriptures....Jane's thoughts were good as they always are, but, for some reason, I couldn't focus so I decided to turn the Pandora radio to the Contemporary Christian music station. From there, it is hard to put into words what happened....

All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit was upon me in the craziest way - I mean I could feel the spirit of the Lord all over me. It is the most amazing feeling - matter of fact, it is such a strong feeling that often times, I will wonder - is something wrong?  Is the Lord trying to tell me something, prepare me for something bad that is going to happen?  Is something going to happen to Luke?  I know, I know - why in the world would I think negatively when here I have the spirit of Jesus - the spirit of love, hope, compassion - trying to talk to me.  Once I got past this fear - I had a conversation with the Lord - yes, a conversation - I even asked God - why do I always think something bad is going to happen to Luke or my family? The Lord often responds through scripture and the verse that immediately came to my head was Romans 8:28 - "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

This verse said to me - don't focus on the negative and the what could happen - focus on ME - JESUS and then you have to fear nothing because no matter what happens, GOOD will come of it.  This verse also spoke to me - instead of worrying about something happening to Luke - focus on training him in the spirit of the Lord. Focus on helping him fulfill His purpose in the Lord.  At that point, several things became clear to me and, as always, it is so difficult to describe all that went through my heart and head during those next 30 minutes - it's hard to organize the thoughts....here's my best shot....

(1) First of all, I asked the Lord - where do I begin in training my son in the Word of God?  Being an educator, I know how to teach him to read, I know how to teach him to write, I know how to encourage his language skills and problem solving skills but how do I get him interested in God's word and teach him all of the lessons the Lord wants him to know?  God's answer - one story at a time.  Wow!  That makes total sense. So, as I learn about Joseph and what the story means to me share it with Luke?  In plain everyday language just like a character in a book except with scriptures inserted?  Yes, that's right - that's what God wants me to do, so on my run, the first area of my life that I had direction was with Luke - I will begin telling Luke Bible stories in my own words using scripture and, most importantly, from my heart - not what a Bible lesson book tells me to say - from a mother's God loving heart to a son's heart!  I'm already excited about what I can share with my precious Luke!

(2) Next, after the Lord and I got the fear about Luke and gave me a direction to go with him, he began talking to me about something else - I heard this song that said in the chorus - "Seal my heart Lord for your course."  And, immediately, this thought came to my mind - what matters more - day to day life or eternity???  Yes, day to day life matters because we use each day to fulfill our purpose but we must live our day to day life with the end goal being eternity and getting ourselves ready for eternity along with getting others to accept Jesus so they can have eternal life in Heaven with Him also.

As I continued to talk with the Lord and to listen to His music, this thought came to my head - why do you try to do everything on your own set schedule?  WOW!  Now, anyone who knows me at all knows that I do everything with a schedule.  I even try to do this blog with a schedule.  Matter of fact, because I promised everyone that I would be posting about Joseph, I had a mental schedule in my head about when I wanted the post to be. Well, the Lord told me something very strongly this morning - MY TIMING DOESN'T MATTER - IT SHOULD BE GOD'S TIMING! I guess that is why every time I start to write my blog on a morning or night that I think I should write it with a topic that I have "scheduled" - he changes my plans!  So, this morning, the Lord left me with a huge challenge - get away from your daily schedule - study the Word of God everyday as much as you can and my schedule  for daily life will become clear. Whew! This is going to be a tough one - but I'm going to try. I'm going to try to carry this over into my life with Luke also.  I often times plan out my schedule with Luke several days ahead but I'm going to try to not do that so much.  I'm going to try not to put as much of a focus on planning so that I don't get in the Lord's way.  Pray for me on this journey - it could be the toughest one yet!

(3) Last, and most importantly, the Lord showed me out on that track this morning how much He loves me.  Gang, I wish I could bottle up the feeling that I got while running this morning - the feeling of God's tremendous love - if it were possible to bottle up this feeling and hand it to someone who has never experienced it before - I would do it and, you know what? That person would not want to give the feeling back to me. It's that good!  It's a feeling of peace, love, hope, kindness, urgency to help others, and, I say again LOVE! I am amazed that for years I didn't pick up my Bible during the week. I took it to church and then put it back down. God was there the whole time - I was just choosing not to seek Him. Then, as soon as I made the choice to open the Bible daily and study it, the Lord has reached out to me so lovingly, so patient, and so strong.  I can't help but ask - Why?  I haven't done anything to deserve God's love. As soon as I ask that - the Spirit says, "I know, I did it for you!"  That's Jesus talking - he died on the cross with me in mind - He knew that there would be times in my life when I would stray but He said because I have laid down my life, you will continue to have yours - his death on the cross provided me with the GRACE to get through the times when I wasn't living like I should.  Jesus is in heaven right now defending me to God - asking God to give me time - time to grow closer and closer to Him.  That, gang, is AWESOME!  TOTALLY AWESOME!  So AWESOME that if you would have seen me on the track this morning you would have thought I would have lost my mind - as I ran, tears running down my cheeks, I lifted my hands to the sky, almost uncontrollably thanking Him for his connection to us here on Earth - the Holy Spirit - my reassurance that Jesus lives within me. It was all I could do not to get down on my knees right there in the grass!

When I got home, I couldn't wait to get by myself and write this blog - unfortunately, time was crunched and getting me and Luke ready for church was a priority so I didn't write this blog until after church. The Lord continued to talk with me in church. The pastor preached on skepticism and how people are skeptical of Jesus and the Bible.  I thought of this blog - there are so many people who read this blog that are probably skeptical and that's okay because I pray that God will continue to provide me with examples that will make those who are skeptical pick up the Bible and start reading it and when you do, God will help with the skepticism. Until then, all I can do is write what He wants me to write so that others can benefit from what the Lord is teaching me and them!

Before I close, as I did last time, I thought it was important for you to see what I wrote, originally, before God spoke to me on the track this morning. Here is what I began to write about Joseph (it is still very beneficial)

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I'm super excited about sharing with you what I have learned through studying the life of Joseph.  I'm going to begin with a quick summary of Joseph's life and journey to fulfill his purpose but, PLEASE, double check my story by reading the scriptures on your own. Joseph's story begins in Genesis 37 - if use a NIV Bible, it's very easy to understand.  Also, the online Bible study helps me to understand and see God's purpose in sharing Joseph's life.  Jane Withers, a trusted friend and server of Jesus, tells the story online and gives valuable insight into the scriptures. Through her insight and the Holy Spirit speaking to me, I learn so much.  Please remember you can check out the website at - www.stcbiblecollege.com.  And, now, here is Joseph's journey summarized by me...

Joseph was his father (Jacob's) favorite son.  He even gave Joseph a special gift - a beautiful robe (which you probably heard called the Coat of Many Colors as a child).  Joseph's brothers hated Joseph because of Jacob's partiality.

One night Joseph had a dream from God. The dream showed Joseph that his brothers would bow to him one day.  Joseph told his brothers about his dream and they hated him even more because he thought he was going to be their leader one day. Later, Joseph had another dream.  Again, the dream signified that Joseph's brothers would bow to him and also signified that his father and mother would bow to him.  Joseph shared this dream with his father and his brothers.  His father gave the dream some thought and wondered what it all meant but his brothers were jealous of Joseph.

Because of their jealousy, Joseph's brothers made a plan to kill Joseph.  They called him a "dreamer."  But, Reuben came to Joseph's rescue and convinced the brothers not to kill Joseph but to sell him into slavery.  They told Jacob that Joseph had been eaten by wild animals.  Jacob was devastated.

Meanwhile, Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.  Potiphar was captain of the palace guard.

(Skip to Genesis 39)

Genesis 39:2 - 6  "The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.  Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did.  So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him.  Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings.  From the day Joseph was put in charge, the Lord began to bless Potiphar for Joseph's sake.  All his household affairs began to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished.  So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned.  With Joseph there, he didn't have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat!"

About this time, because Joseph was a well built and handsome young man, Potiphar's wife began to desire him and asked him to sleep with her. Joseph refused - he told her, "It would be a great sin against God." (Genesis 39:9)  Potiphar's wife continued to pressure Joseph day after day and he continued to refuse and tried to keep out of her way as much as possible.  One day, when no one else was around, Potiphar's wife grabbed Joseph by his shirt and Joseph tore himself away and when he did, his shirt came off.  She was left holding it as he ran from the house.  She used his shirt to lie to Potiphar and the other men in the palace saying that Joseph had tried to rape her.

Potiphar was furious and threw Joseph into prison.

Genesis 39:21 - "But the Lord was with Joseph there, too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer.  Before long, the jailer put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison.  The chief jailer had no worries after that, because Joseph took care of everything.  The Lord was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully."



I need to pause here because just this part of the story is extremely powerful.  Joseph has not fulfilled his dream from God at this point.  However, there are a few things to make note of for situations that we might find ourselves in - no matter where Joseph was - in the pit, in slavery, and then in prison - God was with him and was providing blessings and favor upon him. God was even blessing those around him because Joseph was there. The further down the world's circumstances pushed Joseph, he kept rising up!

Romans 8:28 -

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Do you find it crazy interesting that I stopped at Romans 8:28??? The exact verse that God later brought to my attention - coincidence, no!

I do feel strongly that God wants me to tell you this - Joseph later interrupted dreams for two men who worked in Pharaoh's palace and Pharaoh heard about this - Pharaoh wanted a dream that he had interrupted and Joseph interrupted it for him and because of that, Joseph was put in a position where he was a leader in Pharaoh's kingdom and eventually, saw to it that his brothers (who at one time planned to kill him) and his dad and others in his family had food and profitable land during a famine in Egypt.  So, in other words, Joseph's dream come true - he was the ruler of his family and made sure they were provided for - Joseph did not become the ruler of his family in terms that he would have imagined from the beginning but along the way, Joseph never doubted his vision or dream - he kept pressing on and the Lord had favor with him at every turn.  God used the world's evil ways for the benefit of Jesus.

Gang, this could be a whole lesson in itself and I wish I could go deeper - maybe the Lord will lead me to tell more about that later.

Right now, this is what I want you to know - In Genesis 50: 18 - 21, Joseph learns of his father's death and because of his father's death, his brothers fear that Joseph may have them killed because of how they wronged him years ago.  But, this is how Joseph responded to his brothers - "Then his brothers came and bowed low before him. 'We are your slaves,' they said.  But Joseph told them, 'Don't be afraid of me.  Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. No, don't be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.' And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them."

Does that amaze you all as much as it does me?  Joseph reacted the way that Jesus does to us - kind, loving, forgiving, and without any anger or revenge.  AMAZING!  What an example to live by!

When I'm telling Luke the story of Joseph - the two lessons that I will focus on that we can learn from him are this:  (1) When God gives you a dream, vision, or purpose. It will be fulfilled - no matter what path or hardships you end up taking.  Stay true to the course - never give up the hope that God has placed inside of you and (2) Forgive others - show them the same love and compassion that Jesus has shown you.

I love you all! Thank you for reading!  May God bless you through these words in some way!

Toddy