Brown's Daily Word 11-26-13

 

    Praise the Lord for this new day.  It has been snowing most of the day.  There has been a winter weather advisory posted through Thurday morning.  It has started snowing gently.  The freshly trimmed bush by the picture window of the parsonage is covered with fresh and friendly snow.  Alice and I walked in the mall last night.  The mall is decorated  and decked to the brim for Christmas.  Center court has a Christmas forset with a very lovely chreche.  The Stores are stacked with special Christmas merchandise.  We passed by one display containing Christmas carvings of Olive wood from the Holy Land.  Christmas music is played everywhere you go and I said, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go".  It has been reported that Catholic Charities of Broome County, received over 4200 turkeys from one collection center near the Walmart in Vestal.  Over 10,000 Operation Christmas Child packages were collected in our area.  People are generous and giving.  Area Churches are giving and serving and loving and worshiping the Lord.  I was in Wegmans yesterday... full of thousands of food items and full of thankful and joyful people.   Praise the Lord for America the Beautiful.  Praise the Lord for the Church, the Body of Christ on earth. 

 

    I was listening to a song by Jesus Culture the other day.  The song says "His love never fails".  I was reflecting on the life of Joseph, who could testify that "His love never fails".

   
    When James Boice published his exposition on this section of Genesis, he called Joseph “a man for all seasons.”  It seems like an apt title for a man who went through so many varied experiences.  Joseph had every reason to be vindictive, even revengeful, yet He stayed focused on the Lord and remained trustful prayerful, and grateful.  Somebody has said:
 
    "He was chosen and rejected.
    He was loved and hated.
    He was favored and abused.
    He was betrayed and rescued.
    He was promoted and imprisoned.
    He was tested and rewarded.
    He was slandered and praised."

    At no point did Joseph, ever take his eyes off the Lord.
    Adversity didn’t harden him.
    Prosperity didn’t ruin him.
    Temptation didn’t destroy him.
    Imprisonment didn’t embitter him.
    Promotion didn’t change him.

    Though Joseph was God’s man, he did not have an easy life. His story teaches us about:

    Trusting God when in the pit of despair.
    How to deal with sexual temptation.
    How to redeem a painful past.
    What to do while you wait.
    How to see God’s hand in all things.
    How to make wise plans.
    How God awakens a guilty conscience.
    The marks of true repentance.
    How to live for God in a pagan culture.
    Overcoming lingering bitterness.
    How to die well.

    Joseph stands before us as a man whose life was filled with turmoil.  It started early in his life and never really stopped.  Through it all, he emerged triumphant by God’s grace.  Joseph, the hero of God, rose out of the turmoil of a dysfunctional family.  The life story of Joseph proves you can come from a crazy, mixed-up family and still do amazing things for the Lord. 
      Life isn’t easy for any of us, and for most of us it can be quite difficult.  Spurgeon remarked that “God is to be seen in small things.”  Since God himself stands behind the universe he created, we should not be surprised to find his fingerprints everywhere, even in the tiniest details of life.
 In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/X_2qG22SPwU