I know this is Ol' School but I had to rock it again for you! Enjoy the psalm of these two Godly Saints.
"My soul thirsts for you O'God...I NEED MORE"
With this, I long and call for you to please bow before our Lord in prayer and lift up our Sister Trudianne to Him. She just graduated from High School and the Lord has called her to go spread a pleasing aroma of Him half way around the world - alone! What faith the Lord has graced her with. She will be staying with a missionary family in the Sawa Jungle with the Elsing Tribe until May.
You can follow what the Lord does through her here at her blog, check it out:
http://trudimdalton.blogspot.com/
May we too see the beauty of what our Lord is doing to build up His Kingdom of Royal Priests. Matthew 28:18-20 reads:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Often times we may read this Great Commission without the eyes of the Holy Spirit. We see only the command of what we must do and neglect the identity of our being in the identity and beauty of His doing. We try and make this passage about us and in so doing we try and make evangelism about us as well! Oh that we may see the ailing spirit in this understanding. This is the missing link of the command to go "fill and subdue" the earth given to Adam in Genesis 1:28. Jesus here tells us that we are sent into the world to subdue it and bring it under the rule of the Sovereign Lord. As the apostles did then, and as we do today, we are filling the earth with those who own Jesus as Savior and Lord. But as we go in the obedience to this call, we see the beauty of Christ displayed - the Second Adam (Rom 5:14), goes with us (v.20). It is He who ultimately is filling and subduing for the glory of His name. How the love and patience and heroic stature of Christ greatly supasses our failures and inadequacies. See the richness of His grace, of His mercy.
"My soul thirsts for you O'God...I NEED MORE"
Stay encouraged Fam!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Christ Excels Joseph - Jesus OVERCAME suffering
The heart of Christ towards sinners - emaculate yet movingly personal. Not to long ago I peeped out a sermon on 'Suffering and God's Sovereignty' specifically in the life of Joseph. And one thing this brother specifically said caught my attention for the better. Joseph, truly a remarkable man with a legacy worth approving, a model for us to look back on in history to see how to respond in the midst of unfortunate trials.
Continuing off this little theme I have going on of seeing how all these hero's of the Bible point to the Hero of the Bible, these saints' stories given by God are for us to see Jesus the Messiah fulfilling, pointing too, and how He excels all the more. Christ excels that of Joseph!
First thing I want to show in connecting the dots of Joseph's response to suffering and Jesus' response, is the Egyptian theme Moses gives in the book of Genesis. We have to understand that first, this book, Genesis, was written during the Israelites wanderings after God's liberating acts from the oppressing Egyptians. Egypt was fresh in the front of the minds of the covenant nation both for the bad and as we see later on in the years of their wanderings in the wilderness, the good (Num 11:1-9). It makes sense then that God used Moses to thread together a thematic element crucial to the faithfulness in God the Redeemer for the first generation audience of Genesis.
Egypt, as we see beginning with Abraham's story up until Joseph's deportation into slavery in their very hands, was a national outlet away from trusting in God's promise for the inherited land. It was to say, a false assurance of prosperity, abundance, protection and rest. This quiet echo of a theme is seen in Abraham and Lot's dealings of their homeland, Lot's comfort next to Sodom, Ishmael's mockery of the child of promise and his result of marrying an Egyptian women after material blessing and so on.
[I do urge you to examine this theme on your own throughout the second half of Genesis to reap God's rich exhortation full of relentless grace.]
And this stirred my thoughts. What in my life do I see as Egypt? Seemingly offering me comfort, joy, and prosperity. Tempting me to run and camp there rather than trusting in the God of promises who is faithful, even in this chasm between reality and those promises. Where is your Egypt? Are you like the Israelites wandering, seeing no hope in the present circumstances but turning around and seeing the lusciousness of Egypt's abundance; complaining and longing to just head back, home?
Significantly, this Egyptian theme takes the story to the point of Joseph being forced to abide there. Now we begin to see a connection. Joseph's brothers hated him for being the favored son of Jacob. And after Joseph's dream in which he told these brothers of his that he was truly superior to all, being the one who was in charge, who was rebuked even by his father Jacob. But this was the last straw for the other brothers. Plotting to scheme a murder against Joseph, they agreed to arrange Joseph to be sold, rather, into Egyptian slavery - for what? Shekels of silver. Where else do we see this same instance occur? Was it not Jesus himself, being sold by Judas Iscariot for some shekels of silver!? What makes this more, is that just as Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, so was Jesus, calling upon all those who had followed him and do the will of the Father, his brothers (Mt 12:49).
After suffering much agony and despair, Genesis 45:4 tells us this, "Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come closer to me.' And they came closer. And he said, ' I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt." But how is Christ better. Note his response after suffering in John 20:17. This verse echos Joseph's words of compassion towards his brethren in height of advancement (note that this verse in John is also in height of Christ's advancement). But Joseph immediately added their sin when telling his brothers who he was. Not so Christ! He reminds poor sinners not a word of what they've done to Him.
Family, our thoughts of our sins need not be any more when we see Christ's face, for He remembers no more. Nor does He remind them of what He has done. No, He remembers not His sufferings, why? He finished the work and now hastens to do another for them, eagerly in heaven. How lovingly He says He goes to OUR Father (cf. Heb 2:11).
Stay encouraged family!
Egypt, as we see beginning with Abraham's story up until Joseph's deportation into slavery in their very hands, was a national outlet away from trusting in God's promise for the inherited land. It was to say, a false assurance of prosperity, abundance, protection and rest. This quiet echo of a theme is seen in Abraham and Lot's dealings of their homeland, Lot's comfort next to Sodom, Ishmael's mockery of the child of promise and his result of marrying an Egyptian women after material blessing and so on.
[I do urge you to examine this theme on your own throughout the second half of Genesis to reap God's rich exhortation full of relentless grace.]
And this stirred my thoughts. What in my life do I see as Egypt? Seemingly offering me comfort, joy, and prosperity. Tempting me to run and camp there rather than trusting in the God of promises who is faithful, even in this chasm between reality and those promises. Where is your Egypt? Are you like the Israelites wandering, seeing no hope in the present circumstances but turning around and seeing the lusciousness of Egypt's abundance; complaining and longing to just head back, home?
Significantly, this Egyptian theme takes the story to the point of Joseph being forced to abide there. Now we begin to see a connection. Joseph's brothers hated him for being the favored son of Jacob. And after Joseph's dream in which he told these brothers of his that he was truly superior to all, being the one who was in charge, who was rebuked even by his father Jacob. But this was the last straw for the other brothers. Plotting to scheme a murder against Joseph, they agreed to arrange Joseph to be sold, rather, into Egyptian slavery - for what? Shekels of silver. Where else do we see this same instance occur? Was it not Jesus himself, being sold by Judas Iscariot for some shekels of silver!? What makes this more, is that just as Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, so was Jesus, calling upon all those who had followed him and do the will of the Father, his brothers (Mt 12:49).
After suffering much agony and despair, Genesis 45:4 tells us this, "Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come closer to me.' And they came closer. And he said, ' I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt." But how is Christ better. Note his response after suffering in John 20:17. This verse echos Joseph's words of compassion towards his brethren in height of advancement (note that this verse in John is also in height of Christ's advancement). But Joseph immediately added their sin when telling his brothers who he was. Not so Christ! He reminds poor sinners not a word of what they've done to Him.
Family, our thoughts of our sins need not be any more when we see Christ's face, for He remembers no more. Nor does He remind them of what He has done. No, He remembers not His sufferings, why? He finished the work and now hastens to do another for them, eagerly in heaven. How lovingly He says He goes to OUR Father (cf. Heb 2:11).
Stay encouraged family!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)