THE NONSENSE OF SOME BIBLE NOTES

A LOOK AT SEEKING TRUTH WHEN OTHERS THROW US ROADBLOCKS

Some time ago, when reading in the Psalms, I came across a notation in my study notes that “blew my mind.” It was a note that said Psalm 6 was a prayer “in time of severe illness.” I immediately questioned that, and sought resources to help explain that to me. As I did, I found that the most trusted resources believe this to be a cry for help in a time of depression; his son was hunting him down like an animal; he was realizing that he had somewhere failed his son as a father; and he was exhausted* from his physical and mental trials.

This latter description is what I have long believed and, after researching other comments on this, I struck the NIV note out of contention with a big X.

Now I have come upon an otherwise unnoticed damaging bias of the NIV scholars who put these notes together: They very quietly indicate in several places that they believe the theory that Genesis 1, and perhaps all of Genesis, is a tale based on Ancient Near East mythology. WOW.

I had never even heard a whisper of such a thing until I was reading Psalm 36 and came across the phrase: “…surely when the mighty waters rise they will not reach him.” (vs 6)

But as I read through the notes on this chapter, I was astonished to find these words:

mighty waters – Powerful imagery for threatening forces or circumstances. This and related imagery was borrowed from ancient Near Eastern creation myths.

I pulled my jaw back up from where it fell and immediately put a huge question mark beside that note. What a lie that is! The writers of the Old Testament did not have any need to seek out mythology to write the stories of our God! That is a reference to the flood and to all the carnage it created in a sinful, unbelieving world; while lifting the believers up and out of harms way in the ark.

It is a reminder to us of God’s promises to us that He will never do that again, nor will He allow us to ever be totally overcome in any “waters” that besiege us in this life on earth. The very worst thing that can happen to us is actually the very best thing that can ever happen to anyone: In an instant we will be face to face with our Lord. There is a powerful lesson in these verses and it is not about any ancient mythology.

SO… I set about taking a look at other notes on this chapter and found that this verse has no notes at all in many Study Bible versions, and that most – well actually all of the places I found discussing this verse – completely ignored the claim of mythological foundations and went straight to how powerful a promise this is to us from our God. My buddy, J Vernon McGee, simply said, “When David refers to ‘the floods of great waters,’ I think he is referring to the flood of Noah’s time.”

He goes on to say, “Noah was in the ark when the Flood came and that flood, which destroyed others, simply lifted him up because he was in the ark. The waters of judgment could not reach Noah.”  Bless his heart, he agreed with me!  :)

SO… being the snoop that I am, I went back to check notes in Genesis 1. I have never paid any attention to them because I felt no need to check notes for clarification since I have studied this chapter many times under many scholars and teachers and I have it down pretty well.

At first the notes seem to be supportive of the common ground that God created and he did it in six days and He declared it good. But in this NIV version, the notes declare that some think this was a six day period and others declare that is an indefinite period of time. Uh oh. That simple statement may be true in fact – there are different opinions out there – but suggesting that these beliefs exist side by side and implying that this is okay does not ad up to truth. The impact is not equal. But even bringing it up indicates to me that they are unsure. The note is saying that there is room to maneuver here. More disappointment in trusting these notes at all.

As for creation “being good,” they speak of “no lingering traces of disorder and no dark and threatening forces arrayed against God or man.” This seems innocent enough, but I have also found a very excellent description of these mythological beliefs, and this is a direct reference to those beliefs.

They also use poetic terms in describing words used: In this chapter when they say that “in place” (referring to God giving the seas boundaries,) is a picturesque description of the seas, it belittles the fact that God placed the water where He wanted it and set real boundaries, holding the water back from covering the earth as it had previously. 

The worst, though, comes in verse 16 which describes the duties of the sun and the moon (and the starlight) and they have this to say about that:

two great lights The words “sun” and “moon” seem to be avoided deliberately here, since both were used as proper names for the pagan deities associated with these heavenly bodies.

And then, for emphasis, they say that the term “govern,” refers to the myth that “the Great Creator-King assigns subordinate regulating roles to certain of his creatures.” That is a direct quote from the mythology of the godly role of kings in Ancient Near Eastern Mythologies.

You see, these myths are used in factual history for initiating kingly power with each new king as he came along. It gave each one supreme power over the people, allowing him to declare who would be favored and who would not. It was a way of passing deity from one to another. Thus each one took a turn at being god.

None of this has anything to do with our God or with the writing of Genesis or any possibility that Genesis was written under the influence of mythology.

Our belief that the Word of God is true and sufficient relies, partially, on the fact that nothing is written in any one place that is not supported in other places in the Word. And the creation account is recounted over and over again in the Word of God: no mythical accounting is required or found there!

Be careful what you let others put into your mind to cause confusion in your faith. That is one of Satan’s sneakiest ways to weaken you and make you doubt what you have been taught from God’s Word. If you have a wandering doubt, catch it and ASK about it. Find a leader, even your Pastor, and tell them that you are confused and need some help. Don’t put it off. Don’t let it take root.

And, since you are reading this online, I am assuming that you have a favorite search engine. Use it. Watch out for people who are biased against the Bible being completely true and sufficient for God’s people, but don’t be afraid to read alternate thinking now and then. It can strengthen your own thinking.

Just check your resources for who they are and what they represent and if you aren’t sure about them, ask. Always be ready to ask someone you trust to tell you the truth before settling for believing things you are told by “strangers.” I generally turn my deepest questions into emails to my Pastor. He is willing to take a look and give an answer. If time is short he will say so and come back to it later. I trust his judgment, and that is good because he is our guide and leader in this family of Christians.

One of the reasons I do not insert a lot of scripture addresses in my own remarks is that my desire is to get you interested in finding out if I make sense or not. Go for it. Get curious and stand your ground when people try to make you think that what you have been taught is wrong.

May God help us, as He has promised, when we set out to discover the mighty truths of His Word and of His heart. May we seek, always, to know just a little more about Him and about what He wants us to know and believe. And may we become stalwart in our beliefs and ready to stand firm in them no matter who tries to persuade us away from them. In Jesus name. Amen.

*Exhaustion is a very serious open door to confusion and depression; Watch out for it.

http://davelivingston.com/creationstories.htm

Note: This page is very, very long... just the first few paragraphs will give you an idea what I am talking about.

WEEPING IS SO MUCH FUN!

For much of my adult life, I have tried to avoid crying. I hate what it does to me: Headache, stuffed up nose and sinuses, burning eyes, red face. It all adds up to ugly, and I have enough of that without crying. Crying is not something I do easily, so anger moves in instead. And that often fails me because I often end of crying when I am angry. But the older I have gotten, the better I have become with holding back the tears. No tears for me, please.

When I was going through the rebuilding of my life after I came here to live near my Aunt and cousins, I was crying and weeping a lot because there was a great deal of hurt that had to be dealt with and it hurt all over again. But I also wept with happiness over the pure Joy I found in my renewed relationship with Christ. When I got through a few of those years, I seemed to have decided that it was just too messy to keep crying over things and I “bucked” up. I still tear up over the Majesty of God and the presence of Christ in my life, but that is the most I will allow: tears that don’t fall.

Well… Mother’s Day turned into a disaster for me because I had been ignoring my own feelings about something and had ignored it for about three months: I knew, and said to myself, “I think I need a good cry”. But I could not put a finger on why, so I didn’t. Therefore, I ended up weeping my way through church that Sunday. Funny how things we are stuffing catch up with us in the end.

Now I realize that I was long term dealing with the hurt of not having any family of my own, no parents, no sibling, and no children. And I have been thrown into some aging issues that have been very hard to deal with and that needed to be acknowledged as scaring the wits out of me.

Was crying a weakness of faith? Was crying a sin at that point? I don’t think so. I think it was a necessity. I had been refusing to acknowledge the hurts I was feeling, but they had not gone away. And suddenly I was head bowed and tears flowing and body shaking in a way that I could not stop.

I tried to be discreet about it, but I guess that did not work because one couple handed me a flower and another friend came across to me and gave me one as well. And she gave me hugs, and kisses on the cheek. I was still trying to be subtle about the whole thing, but I was very encouraged by these actions.

And, I was extremely thankful that our pastor does not make a big thing about Proverbs 31 on Mother’s Day. I was very thankful to hear the beauty of Paul’s first recorded sermon, instead; reminding us of how much our God loves us and has been Mighty to save us.

Just to let you know that I know: I am not the only woman in the world, let alone in our church, who has no children; there are other women who have no children due to other, more tragic circumstance than mine. And, by the way, I have sat through many Mother’s Day celebrations without breaking down, or even wanting to break down.

The point I hope to make is that we need to keep up with our feelings or they may take us down.  We need to be who we are and be free in feeling what we feel. It is not a sin to feel pain and hurt. It is not a lack of trust or doubt in God to feel things, and feel them deeply – check Job. Our feelings and emotions are a gift of God and He gave us a lot of them. If we need to cry, then we need to cry.

Weeping is a cleanser of the soul. It is a cleanser given by God to help us keep our hearts and thoughts refreshed and renewed and honestly proclaimed to God, so that He can catch our tears and hug us tightly for the simple sake of His Glory being felt and seen in our lives.

Now that I have come to realize what I wept over, it is time to acknowledge my fear of being alone in my declining years: I must hand that over to Him for safe keeping. And now that I know I have been hurt by baby issues I must also hand that over to Him, knowing full well that He already knows that, and His plans for me simply do not include being close to children, at least for now.

My hope is that we may all stop denying the things that hurt us; but acknowledge them and cry over them when necessary. I cannot help but hope that you who read this will take a serious look at hurts you are holding. These hurts do not always turn to anger, but they can leave you weeping at very inopportune times – like in the middle of church when sin or failure is not necessarily involved - just emotions unexpressed.

My cheeks are red – but I got two carnations out of it! :)  And I turned to the friend next to me, whose husband had brought an extra flower for me, and coyly said: “Look here – I got two.” She called me an over achiever. We smiled and went on in the service. Later we had opportunity to hug.

Father: Thank you for being who you are and for caring for such “human” Human beings. Thank you for sending Christ to be our Savior, friend and brother; the answer to every question from every person on this entire earth, as Paul preached and reminded us in His amazing sermon in the synagogue.

God, help us to be more aware and honest about our hurts and feelings about life as we live it. Let us cry out to you in pain or in joy, whenever we need to express to you what we are feeling; whenever our hearts are lifted up or torn down; whenever we fear the unknown but do not admit it to you; whenever our feelings assist or constrict our ability to find our peace and joy in you.

Let us not be afraid to feel and to share with you exactly what we are feeling. Let us remember that “your mercies are renewed every morning,” and that we can also be renewed and refreshed in them, every morning. And “Let us be singing when the evening comes!”

May God bless you all. In Jesus Name, Amen.

AT LEAST I AM NOT SENILE; I AM BRAIN DAMAGED

In my group of peers, we enjoy playing mind games as much as any group of younger people. The kind of mind games I mean are the ones that have comparison as the core:  My boat is bigger than your boat, my housekeeping is worse than your housekeeping; my mothering style is better than your mothering style; my fashion sense is more clever than your fashion sense; I am a stronger athlete than you are; my team is a meaner machine than your team… and on and on.

My friends and I play “I am more senile than you are.”  :)  We constantly compare our idiot moves which place us in that category, and we laugh like fools over the silliness we find in our behavior. It is fun and it keeps us all humble about our otherwise “great wisdom.”

Recently, though, I have become concerned about my own inabilities to keep up with things. Early on, in entering this period of change, I asked the Lord specifically to help me remember Him if I ever lost cognizance of the present. My Joy in Him is great and I cannot imagine ever not realizing that. That is my most scary thought.

Then, this past fall, something changed for me, big time. Suddenly I was unable to keep up with group discussions such as those that went on in Bible Studies. I dropped all of my study groups and went on an adventure just between me and God. I felt safe there because I was able to follow the threads of thinking and learning.

But then I began to realize that I had so many thoughts in my head that they were beginning to confuse me. I would begin to write them down and then loose track of what I had been aiming to say and I would stop cold. That is why I have not been producing much for my blog.

Then, our ladies Bible Study changed to a new subject and style. The study would involve four of my favorite books and people in the Bible, so I decided to try again. I love preparing for the meetings, BUT I cannot follow the conversation; the discussions. I really can’t. I get so lost that I wonder if they are doing the same study I did. This has been very worrisome.

Then I went to see my doctor about a whole new thing going on with my leg: possible Sciatica. (sigh) I am very concerned about this because I know people who have this problem and it is not pretty; I even took a few moments to consider letting go and being depressed about it. But, frankly, I was too busy for that. Thank God. I am one who can look over the cliff and then walk away in His strength. And being needed in a whole different place helped me tremendously.

So I go to the doctor to see what we can do and I find myself reading an article in Good Housekeeping that is about the effects of brain damage on children: Particularly this women’s son; but also about her discovery of her own childhood brain damage. (!)

It is a well written article that gives some clarity about concussion result brain damage. But it was also a very bright light for me to see what was going on with me:

When Dickens described her childhood fall, Gordon immediately scheduled her for an evaluation. Since TBIs usually can't be seen via medical imaging, the only way to make the diagnosis is to assess a person's cognitive function. So therapists spend hours testing everything from a patient's reasoning ability to her recall of random numbers.

t took several weeks for Dickens to get her results. "As bad as my memory is, I remember every detail of Dr. Gordon telling me I had TBI," she says. "The way I waited with my hands folded in my lap. The six-page report. The weird feeling of Yay! I'm brain-damaged! The waves of sadness for all the years I'd thought I was just a lazy, disorganized, bad person."

At Dr. Gordon's suggestion, Dickens enrolled in a clinical trial in which she received 12 weeks of classes in what she describes as "how to live with a brain injury." The strategies don't make her "normal," she says. "But they make my life 1,000% more manageable, because I know what I need to compensate for."

Among the things she learned is that it is hard for her to take in information just by listening. So now, when she watches TV, she switches on the subtitles. To assist her memory, she uses a reminder app on her phone and alarms for appointments

Note: My damage was not childhood, but it has changed my life.

In the last three years, I have fallen and smacked my head against cement twice, and I fell and slid into a car door last summer. That one really left me loony for a few minutes. These incidents were not as light as I thought. I laughed them off and said I had passed my bone density tests because nothing broke! I have a very hard head!

But now I believe that this is why I cannot function without my timer and alarms on my cell phone combined with sticky notes all over the frame of my computer screen. It is also why I cannot follow the discussions in Bible Studies. Believe it or not, this is a “Hooray” moment for me:

I cannot follow the discussions, but I CAN follow the study and I can still grasp what God is telling me in our times together, studying or just loving on one another! Hallelujah. Amen. This revelation is so freeing that it brings tears to my eyes. And God’s response to this new information and my reaction to it is Psalm 31, particularly verse 9, verses 21 and 22, plus verse 24:

Be merciful to me O Lord, for I am in distress….

Praise be to the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city (place.) In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

And I pray for all of you that whatever besieges you on any day of your life, you will find strength in our Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection that brings life to all of us through the blood He shed on the cross for us. He is Almighty – ALL MIGHTY

And I know in my heart that He will continue to help me share His Love with you through this blog. My heart is full! Amen.

Traumatic Brain Injuries Story - Jennipher and Christopher Dickens - Good Housekeeping

HIS GREAT LOVE FOR HIS OWN IS INEXHAUSTIBLE

This morning I find myself elated in the patience and endurance of God. Last night was crazy… I worried things to death as I laid there in bed and tossed and turned in the middle of the night. The things I fretted over were genuinely silly and absolutely not in keeping with my trust in God.

This morning, all I can say (and said to God) is that I had a really stupid night; really stupid. And I am sorry.

But, also, this morning I can say that I am more in love with God and with my Bethany family and our God driven Pastor than I have ever been before. Somehow, wrestling with things these days is much more productive than it used to be. Why? Because now I have been fed so well from the Word of God that I can immediately perceive that I was stupid; and I can turn around and praise God for His Great Love; I have been reminded that everywhere in His Word, no matter the book or chapter, we are told about that Great Love, and of the compassion He has for his own children in each book: even in Judges.

These trips we take through the books of the Bible are very much an adventure through God’s thinking and planning and His methods of preparing us for life with Him in the future.

In Ladies Bible Study, we are looking at Ruth for a moment and we see a beautiful story of God’s patience and love and planning when a man makes a decision based on “what he thinks is right in his own eyes.” As things develop we realize that, without this decision, Ruth would never have met Boaz, with whom she produced a son whom they named Obed - a prominent person in the line of Jesus Christ, Himself. There, in the midst of a time when God could have dealt with the Israelites as He did with Sodom, He kept his covenant and loved a woman called Ruth, the Moabitess, who was to be a mother in the line leading to the birth of Christ.

Wow. These are just two of the books of the Bible; but what profound lessons are learned in them.

I, personally, appreciate the fact that our Pastor Tim follows his own heart – at God’s prompting – and feeds us from book after book after book. (And that he allows and prompts his fellow pastors to join him in leading us through these books.)  I am overwhelmed with the love that God gives him and, in return, he gives to us.  

This morning I am comparing what I feel with the phrase often used by people who have been married for a long time: I love him/her more today than I did when I was first married.

In this church, I have learned to love Him more today than I ever have before, and I thank Him that He has given me such a great environment to grow up in.

I can only hope, and pray, that others are realizing a great feast from the Word on a daily and weekly basis in several different ways. God’s Word is a celebratory feast for all of us to enjoy and I hope (and know) that many of my friends and loved ones are enjoying the feast as much as I am.

May we all give back to God the Love that He gives to us and may we tell Him so every single day.   

Our Father, Our Lord and Savior and our Life Coach, the Holy Spirit, we thank you for all that you are and all that you do in our most insignificant daily life.

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me.

YET, this I call to mind (everyday) and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

THEY ARE NEW EVERY MORNING:

Great is Your faithfulness.

I say to myself the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.

The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to the one who seeks Him;

It is good to wait patiently for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3:19-26

Therefore, may we all give to God every single fret and worry so that we may live the life of Joy that He offers us.

God Bless you all. Amen

CAN COMPROMISE EVER BE A GOOD THING?

I was sitting here this morning wistfully looking at the photo, of a family member, that I had fallen in love with many years ago. Due to the distance between her family and I over the years, I didn’t get to meet her until she was in her twenties. But I had loved the picture so much that her grandmother had it enlarged to 8x10 and framed; then gave it to me for Christmas. I have cherished it ever since and it is the only family picture that I display on the bookcase where it sits.  I can see it from my easy chair and I love looking at it. Why do I love it so?

Well, for one reason, because it is nearly the only picture I had of anyone in that family and I love that family. But the stronger reason is that it is, to me, a beautiful story of compromise. That is what holds my heart so tight.

Right now, our country is suffering from failure to compromise because the very idea of compromise is conceived as evil: That is unless the one who does the “compromising” is the other guy.  And we are seeing some very serious results of failure to compromise and failure to stand our ground.

But this is not about politics and the national problems, this is about us.

Yesterday our sermon was on Judges 19.  We have been going through the book of Judges where “All men did what was right in their own eyes” and over an over again did evil in the eyes of God. But chapter 19 gets down to the nitty-gritty and let’s out all stops.  Compromise leads to sin; grievous sin. Right in the middle of this chapter, we find a man comprising with evil: I will not stand for this action, but hey, go ahead with this other evil: that will be fine.

Compromise with evil brings evil. Compromise that avoids direction from the Word of God, leads to evil and the pain of the results of that evil. Compromise can be a very ill-fated idea.

But the picture that I am seeing is of a toddler, who was living with her missionary parents in Thailand, and of a small dog who is her buddy. According to Grandma, this little one has been told that she can not go outside (at least right now) and the dog is not allowed to come in.

Their door is a great wooden French style door.  The baby has seated herself on the line of demarcation where inside and outside meet. This, of course, opens the door just a little. The pup has stuck his head in the door just enough for his head, but not his body, to be inside the door. They had found a way to obey, but still be together.

I have no idea what proceeded thereafter, but this is just too cute to resist, so Mom took a picture. How she saw it, I do not know. But how I see it is as a picture of the kind of compromise we need in our relationships with those we love and care about.

Sometimes we have to agree to disagree.

Sometimes we have to work out what keeps us together and what may tears us apart. We need to decide how far to push our own agenda, if at all.

I am not suggesting that any compromise needs to be made with sin. What I am suggesting is that we need to let each other be who we are and find ways that we can keep the door open between us. Closed doors lead to disaster in any relationship. Some doors need to be cracked open at all times in order to allow the relationship to grow closer, rather than become impossibly tangled in strife rather than love.

Sometimes we even need to forgive one another for slights and slurs that may be intended, but also may have been misunderstood. And sometimes we just need to forgive one another for the other not being us. “Why can’t women be more like men” is the pleading lyric about one silly men/women relationship problem.

There are many hard things that come up in relationships, however close or distant they may be. I could make a list, but I won’t because we know what they are in our relationships. We know where the sore spots are. We know what we hold in our hearts about these failures of others to do exactly what we expect of them. We know in our hearts what they are like; and, if they are not trying to make us into sinful people, then we need to find a way to accept them as they are and love them, keeping the door open for communication and trust.

May we all take a look around us and see who we are holding to a standard made up in our own minds, but not by God. May we all seek to keep the doors open to friends and family and even strangers so that they may see, and seek, God’s great love for them.

I know I have a lot of work to do on this. How about you? God bless you.

  

What do you think?

PLANS ARE NOT FUTILE EVEN WHEN THEY DON’T WORK OUT

This morning while I was reading in a Missions update magazine, I was struck with two delightful thoughts on the same subject – Planning.

The first part of the magazine starts with missionary testimonies and I love reading that part. These are little snippets of life on the field, but they also include the introductory capsule of how they met, how they schooled and how they were set in motion toward the field in which they are now serving. I was delighted to read that two of them in particular wrote of having plans that God changed.

One was a simple,  one day affair where two women planned a day of refreshment, going up to town and having some lunch and fellowship together. The writer described the trip as a climb up the mountain over bumpy roads in an old klunker. They arrived in good shape, but as they started toward the eatery, a man approached them with what turned out to be a very serious need.

At first they thought it was a scam, but they realized that this man was very serious and in serious need of help with his diabetes. They were then able to take him to the hospital (rather than just give him money for the insulin) and he was soon stabilized there. Then, when they parted ways, they gave him what they had in money so that he could buy more insulin and food because he was a long way from home and a long way from his destination. He would not make it without those two things. (He had been robbed.)

The writer ends with this:

Each and every day I’ve got my to-do list ready, but sometimes the Lord has something else in mind.  Those changes turn out to be the biggest blessings. 

What I came away with is that we should plan, yes, but we should also be prepared for God to have something else in mind. If those women did not plan to go for lunch and a time of refreshment together, they would not have been there for that man in his time of need.

It was definitely the right thing to do to plan going to lunch. The fact that they didn’t get to lunch was of no matter. They needed to be in that particular parking lot at that particular time for God to use them to help this man.

How often do we get annoyed for the rest of the day because our plans for the day go skewed somewhere along the way? How often do we bemoan a change of our chosen direction and purpose which seem to be stolen from us by someone or something else? Good questions? I think so.

But - What about an even bigger change of plans? What about planning for a lifetime to reach a certain goal of service or career and being sideswiped or even suddenly inspired to change it all?

We see that happening day after day after day all around us.

But what if we feel called to do a very specific service for God, marry someone who sees the same plan, and train together for several years to get to that position? What if we get there and the plan takes a sharp turn left or right? Can we handle that?

One missionary family I know had a severe turning when they got to the mission field.  Now they are seeking to find what is next, after a year of healing from the physical, mental, and spiritual pains of that change. They are still looking to serve God in the field somewhere. They are just not sure yet where or with which Board. But they are ready to find the path again.

In this magazine, there was another story of change:

These missionaries met in school and both felt led to be in aviation ministries. They schooled and trained for that mission work. But during their first term, they saw a greater need for their services and they willingly changed their direction to building a camp ministry where they had been serving.

Their second term, they took that on full time and have prospered in it as a full campsite has been built; and they started and built a new church in the area, which then they expanded into outlying areas with two church plants.

This was not their vision. This was God’s vision! Had they not planned to be in aviation ministry in this place, they would never have seen the need for a camp and a church, plus church planting ministry.  They did not in any way choose the wrong ministry. God led them all the way into what happened. He knows each and every purpose for the path He leads us on.

So they closed with this advice:

Go into missions (or any service) with longevity in mind…. Stay as long as the Lord allows, but start with a ‘growing old on the field’ attitude.

This was a delightful experience for me, as I read these testimonies. I just wanted to share these two with you, plus two more ending thoughts:

LET GOD LEAD YOU.

And - While leadership styles differ… God has uniquely prepared us all.

May we all confront our fear of letting God have control of our days; and may we all free up our hearts and minds to accept whatever comes our way, with gratitude to God for His Great Love! In Jesus Name, Amen.

JOSEPH WENT INTO THE PIT A BRAT

Recently a blogger that I follow, and who is quite blunt in his observations of life, was asked to critique another man’s blog. The man stated that he would be glad for any criticism that might come from that. He definitely was not. The words he hurled back cannot be repeated here. The review was quite negative, to say the least. The following portion of that review struck me boldly. Hmmm… I thought he just might be talking to me. So as I set out to start writing again, I decided to take his advice to heart:

2) The content isn’t very good. I read a few of your posts. For the most part, I agree with your points, but you didn’t communicate them in a way that provoked me, entertained me, enlightened me, or educated me. If you can’t do any of those things, I’m not going to be inclined to return to your blog. It’s not enough to be right – you have to be engaging. And, as they say in the radio industry, never be boring. In terms of driving traffic and earning money, boring is the worst thing you can be. Boring is death. Never be boring. Be provocative, be entertaining, be enlightening, be educational; never boring. Unfortunately, right now, you’re boring.

So be warned: I am going to try to not be boring.

Some people have had conniption fits in the past over my voicing my opinion that Joseph was a brat. “NO!” they say. “Joseph was sweet and wise and wonderful.” And, eventually, he was that. But before he was tossed into that pit, he was a bratty button pusher; one who took full advantage of being the favorite son. That is, the son of Rachel, who was well known to be the favorite wife, but was barren for years. When she finally gave birth to Joseph, they both spoiled him half to death in their thankfulness for his birth. Ah, Joseph was a spoiled brat, not just a common brat.

What brings me to this subject once again is a new Bible Study I am doing on perseverance which begins with the story of Joseph. There is a quote there with which I disagree strongly, though not entirely. The study author says,

In his book, I Really Want to Change, James MacDonald points out that many people today believe they are what they are because of their past. They believe they cannot change until they have dug up the past and spilled their guts about it. MacDonald says that the Biblical message is the reverse, that is, the key to changing is to forget.

MacDonald suggests that if any need(ed) counseling because of (a) painful past, Joseph did.” This guy was coddled by his father, pampered as the youngest and ridiculed and ultimately rejected by his brothers.”

Basically this is based on Philippians 3:13,14 where Paul says that he moves on to the future while forgetting the past. But we have evidence that Paul did not forget his past: He put it in its proper place. He “got over it” and did not dwell in it because he was counseled by God, Himself, about being forgiven and forgiving as He met with God for three years preparing for his ministry. He did not carry it as a burden or baggage; but he did not "forget" it and we think of "forgetting." He used it.

I believe that Joseph was also counseled – by God – in his trip to Egypt. He went into the pit a brat, but he came into Egypt with a whole new attitude and a strong trust in the God who was with him and the God he was with.

I do believe that we must not live in the past. But I also believe that we must deal with it and how it controls us before we can move on. It was three years after entering recovery and spending hours and hours in God’s Word, before I felt that my heart and mind where ready to move forward and leave the past where it belonged: in the past.

But I have not forgotten my past. In fact I use it frequently here in my blog. I just don’t live there anymore. And I have the ability to remember without emotion, while keeping my emotional state in the present. That is, I believe, the key to moving forward..

Let’s admit right up front that Joseph came from a pretty dysfunctional family. One disfavored wife and two concubines gave birth to the first ten sons (and several daughters.)You might say that they were born of sex, not of love. Jacob loved Rachel beyond comprehension and waited and waited for their lovemaking to produce a child. Meanwhile he dutifully had sex with his other wife, Leah, and with the concubines that she and Rachel gave to him to increase their own “ownership” of children. With ten sons and who knows how many daughters, things were not often on an even kneel.

Then, along came Joseph and all bets were off. The brothers (and possibly the sisters?) united in their hatred of this favored son. How dare he take all of their father’s attention? How dare he poke at them over and over again about how much his father loved him more than them? How dare he even move up to claiming that they would all be bowing to him in the end? How dare he?

Ah…. But he did. He did remind them every chance he got. He did push their buttons and show off his favoritism over and over. And then he had the gall to say that someday they would bow down to him! How dare he do that? He dared because he knew he could get away with it. He was born a sinner just like everyone else. And it showed.

But God was at work in Joseph’s life at all times and began to be knowledgeably with Joseph daily during the trip to Egypt and through all that happened there.

May we be bold enough to look at our past, deal with it, and then get moving forward, using it to make us stronger in our faith while not staying in the past. Moving on from our past is absolutely necessary; even if nothing we would call drama ever happened there.

Some people find it difficult to move on because they feel some kind loss that their lives did not have drama. They, too, must move on and make a life beyond their past which includes memories of pleasant things. But, trying to live your life today the same way your family lived it in the past can be just as crippling, if you make that your goal. Use it, don’t lose it, but don’t try to live it over again. That was then, and this is now.

God bless you all. Please let me know if you agree, disagree, want to spit in my face or want to hug me. I would love to have conversations with you. Especially let me know if you find all of this boring - and why. : )