Riches to Rags: The Story of Joseph

I'm reading through the Old Testament at the moment and keep being astounded by seeing how God moves throughout it. The way He acted on Sarah's behalf when Abraham's lies landed her in another man's bed. The way He appeared to Jacob who was running away from home to escape the punishment he deserved. The mercy He exercised on Judah when He slept with His daughter-in-law.

Right now I'm reading about Joseph, in Genesis 39. Jacob, Joseph's father is rich. Very rich. He amassed a lot of wealth working for his father-in-law (because God was with him). So Joseph has grown up fairly cushty (comfortably). We don't read anywhere before the slave situation about Joseph doing any kind of manual labour, and in fact, when he was out in the desert in his specially made coat (Jacob, his father, had commissioned a special coat for him because he was his favourite) he was only there to check on his brothers and report back, he wasn't even out there helping them!

And then all of a sudden Joseph finds himself working as a slave. Riches to rags. Everything he has ever known is gone...except God. (The following verses I am translating from my Svensk Folkbibeln Translation into English)

Genesis 39.1-2 - 'Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, one of Pharoah's officals and the commander of the guards had bought him (Joseph) from the Ishmaelites who had brought him. The Lord was with Joseph and in everything he did he succeeded. He was in the house of his Egyptian Lord...'

And then as if Joseph hadn't been humiliated enough, going from a wealthy, luxurious lifestyle to one where he was a slave, he gets accused of attempted rape and finds himself in prison.

Genesis 39.19-20 (Summation) - 'When Joseph's master heard..he became furious and put Joseph in jail...'

Genesis 39.21 - 'But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him grace and let the prison manager respond well to him.'

Genesis 39.23 - '...because the Lord was with him and let him succeed in all he did.'

I always think Joseph's is such an amazing story. He starts off like a big shot, gets dumped in a well, sold as a slave, accused of attempted rape and thrown in jail...but he ends in triumphant fashion. He ends up saving his entire family from famine...not to mention all of Egypt.

I like his story for a number of reasons:

1. God just seems to be with him all the time. And not only that, it says continually that he succeeds irregardless of where he is physically because God is with him. That's pretty cool. To be a slave, and be a success. To be in prison, but to still be a success and have special kindness given to you.
2. His prison background didn't stand in the way of God's plan for his life. God is so much bigger than our pasts. He is in the business of shaping big futures for people whose lives at one point looked hopeless.
3. No time is wasted time with God. Later in the story when Joseph explains the dreams of the two court officials in jail and they forget him when they come out, it seems like it was a waste. But God is always true to His promises, and when He says that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him, He means it.
4. His great beginning was only a shadow of his extraordinary ending. Yes, Joseph's life started fairly comfortably, growing up in a wealthy family, nice coat and so on, but at the end of his life he is governor in a land, second only to the king. In Christ our futures are so much richer than our humble beginnings. As CS Lewis once said 'There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.'

God has such great things planned for each of our lives that go way beyond our own needs, happiness and comfort and touch the lives of others. Sometimes we can be on our way somewhere great and it doesn't quite go how we thought it would...but it goes as He knew it would...and the best thing is that in those 'hopeless', 'wasted' seasons, He is most at work in the things we can't see preparing us for the futures He sees for us.

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed..." - Romans 3.21

When Jesus Christ came to earth, it was the culmination of years of planning and hard work. The Jewish people up until then had been governed by law (See Exodus 20). Law that told them not to take God's name in vain, not to covet, to rest on the Sabbath, to honour their parents and so on. The ultimate purpose of the law was to show the Jews what was right in the eyes of God, and how to live in a way pleasing to Him.

The problem with the law was that it made it impossible for the Jews to live in a way pleasing to God. No matter how carefully they watched themselves and tried to do no wrong. All it took was one sin...and they'd stepped out of God's will and into judgement.

To escape the judgement that resulted from sin, sin offerings were given to God to make atonement. God would look at the offering and not make them pay the penalty for the sin, but it still didn't really deal with the problem. The offerings didn't deal with the sin, they covered it. On the outside, it looked as if there had been a change, but the real root of the sin, originating in mankind's heart remained.


Paul talked about the strange condition of the human heart in Romans 7.15, saying 'that I will to do, that I do not practise; but what I hate, that I do.'


So there were two problems that needed to be resolved;

1. No matter how hard everyone tried to do the right thing, they couldn't.
2. Even though God forgave the sins, the root of the problem remained; the sinful nature of man's heart.

So God created Jesus; fully God and fully man.When God created Jesus, He created Him to be the final sin offering. This meant that after Him, no-one, ever, would have to offer a sin offering. Jesus came to earth, blameless and sinless; perfect.


You see Jesus role as the final sin offering was to personally take on all the sins ever committed and ever to be committed and call them His own (2 Corinthians 5.21). Taking them on, Jesus would have to pay the penalty for sin that was not his own. Romans 6.23 tells us what the penalty for sin is; it's death.


Death in the physical sense, (if you look at Genesis and the record of the fall, it tells us that as a result of the fall sin and thus death entered the world), but not only that, death to God, and separation from all that pertains from Him, all that is good, all that is love, all that is hope, all that is faith; Hell, in short.


So when Jesus cried out on the cross ' elohi elohi, lama shavakhtani?' (Mark 15.34 - HNIV) He was experiencing Hell.


On our behalf.


But it was not the end. Jesus had been a willing sacrifice, fully God and fully man. He had descended into the very depths of Hell to account for all our sins, committed and to be committed, and then He rose again to overcome death, and show that the power that was in Him was stronger than sin, and stronger than death.


He did it so that every time we sin, we are rescued from our rightful punishment; eternal separation from God. So when God looks at us, where he should see sin, darkness, and evil, He sees the face of His son, who took all our punishment on His own back so that we would no longer have to be enslaved by sin, always doing the wrong thing and constantly falling short of God's standard, but instead could be righteous, relying on a power greater than our own.


God sent Jesus so that we would be free to achieve our full potential.

This was problem one dealt with, but God was still not finished.

Romans 10.9 tells us that everyone who believes God loves them and as a result sent His son to die for them is saved. When Jesus was on earth He spent time talking to people, He spent time showing them His character; what was important to Him and good in His sight. He spent time with all kinds of people, tax collectors, women that were having affairs...nobody was too low for Him. You see in doing this, Jesus was tapping in to people's hearts.

By nature, God is relational. He loves us, He talks to us. When Jesus was on earth He wanted us to get to know Him, so that we would in turn tell others about Him. He wanted us to get to know Him so that the more we got to know Him, the more we wanted to be like Him. He wanted to instigate a change of heart, so that instead of our inclination being to do things our way, and therefore sin against Him, our most earnest desire would be to behave in a way that would please Him.


And of course, even if our desire was to please Him, He knew, as I mentioned earlier, how hard it was for us to do the right thing without help from someone outside of us and more powerful than us to do so. So when Jesus left earth for heaven, He left us the Spirit of God (sometimes called the Holy Spirit), the third member of the trinity, so that we would be able to call out to God and receive help in time of need (Hebrews 4.16) and be able to do God's will.

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.' - Romans 8.14

Allow yourself to get to know Jesus, fall in love with Him and He will transform your life. It won't happen overnight, but you'll notice it. You'll no longer measure yourself by what you have done, can do, or what others tell you that you are, but instead will see yourself as God sees you; perfect and blameless in His sight. Your outlook on the world will change; you'll understand more clearly God's grace and what it means to be forgiven and forgive others. You'll be able to discern between what is good (of God) and evil (not of God), and you'll be able to love others as Christ has loved you.

God bless x

Five To Be Thankful For

1. My family - As with all families, we aren't always spectacularly kind or patient with one another, but we love each other and are extremely close.
2. My job - The fact that I was done with uni for only two weeks and then straight into full time work is something of a miracle, that definitely is not the case for most people.
3. My health - A cold here or there, an ugly insect bite on my leg; these aren't big things, so grateful God for keeping me in good health
4. My friends - I have amazing ones. They all know who they are, but it has been a blessing to know them, and I have learnt so much and grown so much with them, I'm praying I continue to do so.
5. My housing arrangement - I'm not living in my own place right now but I am living rent free, which in the  current economical environment, unless you are living with your parents, is extremely unusual. Super grateful to God.

And a song, because I am currently listening to it on ibethel and LOVE it! (I have however already posted this song on the blog so apologies for repeating!)

"Oh give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; tell of His great works to the ends of the earth!"

-1 Chronicles 16.8 (Paraphrase)

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 5.11

"But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You."

Just a quick one! Throughout the Old Testament, satan is called our accuser [Job 1.6, Job 2.1]. He reminds us constantly when we fall short of God's standard. When Jesus died for our sins, Hebrews tell us that He became our High Priest, (standing in the gap between ourselves and God, pleading mercy and grace on our behalf). We can be joyful in hope for the future because God defends us. That's why the bible says this:

"[There is] therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

- Romans 8.1

God bless, have a great week.

Celebrating Easter

I know that in terms of timing, this post is a little late, but I really wanted to share this anyway.

Easter is such a big deal for Christians because it is the heart of the story. It is what Christianity is all about.

Whilst Christmas is a lovely celebration; we recognise Jesus came to Earth, the son of God, fully man, fully God etc etc. the reason why Christians are Christians and call themselves Christians is because Christ died for their sins.

History proves that Jesus existed. A man, called Jesus was alive at the time the bible claims that He was, and He caused quite a stir. That much can be proven.

What makes this Jesus man particularly significant is the fact that He claimed He was the son of God. If you think carefully about it; the place and culture in which He was saying this, the gravity of the statement He was making and the fact that saying such a thing would have a MASSIVE impact on the people who belonged to the culture He was speaking to... you have to think about it...He was either completely nuts - as in the guy wanted the people of Nazareth and Bethlehem and Judea to kill Him, or He was telling the truth.

If He was telling the truth; which is what Christians believe, if He was telling the truth, then this is what He was saying:

Jesus was claiming that the root of all problems faced in the world, in this life, all of them, could be found in sin, something which is found within us.

Jesus was saying that it was sin that caused pain, distrust, corruption, dishonesty, poverty, harm, and general disaster.

So if Jesus was telling the truth about Himself and about sin, then, as He said, the only permanent solution to the problem would be Himself.

Hear me out. In humbling Himself; that is in coming in the form of a man, with all the temptations, exposure to sin and its effects and ordinary people, and then dying as He did, he provided us with the grace to live SIN-FREE, dealing with the source of the world's problems permanently, so that sin could no longer cause any problems.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am fully aware, that some Christians, in fact, A LOT of Christians (myself included), have acted sinfully (outside of God's will) and as a result done A LOT of stupid things. But here's the difference between how Christians deal with sin, and how non-Christians deal with sin.

In my experience, when non-Christians sin, or, as a lot would say 'do bad things' or 'do the wrong thing', they will say this; 'I couldn't help it', or 'it's human nature'. There is an acknowledgement that what happened was wrong, and more often than not they will also say something along the lines of 'I won't be doing it again though', or 'I'll try harder next time not to'.

When Christians sin, they also acknowledge that they did the wrong thing, but they acknowledge that the wrong thing was not only done against the person or persons or object, but against God, because they were falling short of His standard, i.e. sinning. This is significant because when we acknowledge that we did the wrong thing before God, we are also acknowledging that there is a penalty we are required to pay for our sin. God being Good (without sin) and just (fair - as in, He can only accept Good), means that when we sin, He has to acknowledge it. He can't just gloss over it, because immediately He's not always Good, because He's allowing sin. It's like a judge saying to a murderer, 'no you're good, be on your way', it immediately makes us question how Good God is. And when God acknowledges our sin, He acknowledges that there is a penalty we have to pay for it.

BUT, because God is merciful and gracious, He didn't want us all to pay the full wages of our sin (death - eternal death, eternal separation from Him). So He looked for a way for us - if we wanted to - to be reconciled to Him, without compromising on His Goodness and Fairness. So what He did, is that He put Himself in our place. He gave us His son, the human embodiment of Himself on this Earth (Jesus), to go through the same everyday struggles as us; betrayal, hunger, friendship, family, even the paying of taxes, and yet NOT sin, so that all the sins we have ever and will ever commit, would be accredited to Him - as in, we did the crime but He did the time - so that we could still have a relationship with Him.

Got it yet?

He gave up a part of Himself, so that we could be part of His family.

So when Christians acknowledge their sin before God, they acknowledge the penalty that they owe, but even greater than that, they acknowledge that the penalty they owe (to God), has already been paid, so they can still be in relationship with God despite their sin, and so that next time, when the opportunity to commit that same sin arrives (and it always does, trust me), they can be sure, that the person who went before them, Jesus; God Himself, already went through temptation and resisted it, so that there is another way to do things, and they don't have to give into human nature; therefore meaning, that those impulses they have always given into, are not the only way to live, that they don't have to be in a sin-guilt-sin-guilt cycle, but that they can have a new future shaped by a new way of doing things, with the help of someone BETTER than themselves: Jesus.

To sum up why Christians celebrate Easter. Easter is a celebration, a party if you will, at which Christians remember and get excited about the fact that God loved them so much, that despite all their idiocy; the silly day-to-day sins they commit and mistakes that they make, He gave Himself up for them so that they could be free from a sin-FULL lifestyle, and live one of grace, with forgiveness in abundance, available every nanosecond.

Happy Easter - Jesus died to set you free, He said, "take up your cross, and follow me".

{source, tumblr}

Luke 24.26-27 and The Gospel of Jesus Christ

'He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem..."'

The gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance and forgiveness:

Not condemnation, but hope.

Not death, but life.

Not lawfulness, but relationship.

One of the things the scribes took issue with was Jesus forgiving sins (Matthew 9.1-6), because they believed only God had power to forgive sins, but if Jesus was who He claimed to be, the son of God (Luke 22.70) and the Christ (Matthew 16.16-17), then He had full right to forgive sins.

And that's what He came to earth to do. He came to bridge the gap between the sinful and the sinless. So He came to Earth, still God, in the form of a man, so that He could walk among us and make God real to us, make God personal. He came to Earth to save us.

Do you know where something similar happened? Joseph.

Joseph was fully human (you can tell by his behaviour), and when he dreamt of his future and all that was to come, instead of keeping it hush-hush as Jesus did (Matthew 16.20, Mark 8.30, Luke 9.21), he went around boasting about it.

He wasn't lying though. His brothers were going to bow down to him (Genesis 37.7-11). So after he told them all that he had dreamt they 'disposed of him', rather like what happened to Jesus with his crucifixion. And they thought that was the end of it.

"But what they didn't know was that what they had meant for evil, God had meant to be their own salvation (Genesis 50.20)."

You see without Joseph being thrown in a well, he wouldn't have been sold to Ishmaelites, which would have meant he wouldn't have been a slave in Potiphar's house in Egypt, which in turn would mean that he wouldn't have been accused of rape, which would mean he wouldn't have ended up in jail, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been there to decipher the meanings of the dreams of the baker and cupbearer, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been able to decipher the King's dream, which would mean that he wouldn't have been able to save Egypt and the surrounding lands (including the land of Canaan where all his brother's lived), which would have meant that his whole family would have died.

In much the same way, if God was not merciful, then He would not have sent His son Jesus (who was both God and man) to be crucified, which would mean He (Jesus) wouldn't have taken the cost of all our sins, and if He hadn't taken the penalty for all our sins which is death (Romans 6.23a), we would all be facing eternity without God, Hell, rather than having what we now have (should we want it), the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6.23b).

Hey guys, use this website http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm to look up all the verses that I have mentioned. Just type each of them into the search bar at the top and choose a version you think you will find easiest to understand. The version I have used for my quotes here is the NIV.

Five To Be Thankful For: Psalm 136.26

1. Jesus - Honestly, don't where I'd be without your son God. I'm far from perfect, and I really don't deserve your love, but you gave it anyway in the form of your son. Thanks for loving me and making me perfect in you.

2. Helping me get all my uni work done - I've found the last three months very very stressful, but you were with me and I didn't crack under the pressure.

3. Teaching me - I'm learning little by little how to be more like you. More peaceable, gentler, humbler, and I'm not quite there yet but with you I'm making my way there slowly but surely.

4. My job - It's probably the best job I've ever had, it pays the bills and allows me to save, and is pretty flexible, thank you for ensuring I got it.

5. One of my friends came to church this year! It's amazing and I am so so grateful to you. I know you will continue to work wonders in her life and show her how much you love her.

"Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever."

- Psalm 136.26