I love the story of Joseph

LOVE IT!

I sat next to my 4 1/2 year old grandson in church while the story was being read… “Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more…”  (Gen.37). Even a child is drawn to this story.

It is the story of God overlooking immaturity, using immaturity, making even  sinners serve His purpose…. Keeping,  maturing,  and humbling a favored and cocky son, and then positioning him to preserve not only his family but ultimately an entire nation!

It all started with a dream.  Not Joseph’s, but the dream in the heart of God—the making and redeeming of a nation.  At first it was just a family of flawed people.  Rival mothers. Parents choosing favorites.  Siblings jostling for position.  A dysfunctional mess!  But God saw in this family the seed of a nation that would showcase His brilliance to the world!

I love that!  It’s not about our perfections but about His. Our weaknesses and even our sins make  God’s greatness shine all the more. Who else could take such a mess and fashion such a story of redemption?!

So, one morning while we waited for their Mama to make a gourmet breakfast I put on a dramatized reading of Joseph’s story (Gen.37-47) and we listened together, the kids and I, to the whole epic unfold in the words of Scripture.  Incredible.  We listened as Joseph’s dreams came true in the end—Who would have believed it?!  All his big brothers did indeed bow down to him–these brothers who had been livid at his cocky boasting. Who did this 17 year old think he was anyway?! 

They had seethed in jealousy over his designer coat, the symbol of their father’s favoritism.  And now he was positioned to save their lives.  God had brought it about.  What his brothers meant for harm God turned to good.  It was not about Joseph at all.

God’s intentions extended far beyond Joseph’s wildest dreams.  But in the interim there were the humbling and refining years—the rejection and abandonment, the enslavement in Egypt, the unjust imprisonment.  God used it all to refine and prepare Joseph for his crucial role of leadership in a time of crisis.

He was in the end exalted to greatness in Egypt and his brothers would indeed bow to him. But by this time he was more than an immature dreamer imagining great things for himself.  He was willing to bow to God’s purposes and forgive his brothers the evil they had done him because he saw it all as part of God’s plan for him for the saving of many souls (Gen.50:20). 

God’s dreams are bigger than ours.  They go beyond us.  His plans for us and for our kin are not bound by our faults and failures, our sin and dysfunction.  Think of Joseph’s father through all those years of mourning the perceived loss of his son. What a shame–Joseph was not dead at all!  And all the while God was steadily at work preparing a great future and hope for Jacob and his descendants (and ultimately for us!).  A great redemption was in the making.  He just could not see it.

Our perspectives can be so earth-bound, so based in what we see and hear.  No wonder God invites us to set our minds on things above not on things that are on earth (Col.3:2), to walk by faith, to endure for the joy set before us,  to keep an eye to the hope of our calling…

And as we roam about visiting our kids and grandkids–enjoying our progeny, the story of Joseph reminds me to keep the long view of things and to celebrate what God is doing behind the scenes in all our lives for His own glory.

–LS

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! Ps.44:26

“…for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.” Ps.44:3

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him , because he cares for you…” I Pet.5:5-7

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.” II Cor.12:10

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

 

P.S. Looking for an audio Bible?

Check out BibleGateway.com for online audio readings of any passage of Scripture you wish (in various versions, including a dramatized reading from the NIV).  It’s free and super easy to use–an effortless way to accomplish your Bible Reading plan!

Making Memories

Jots and Tittles

This is a week for making grandmothering memories—for reading books and baking chocolate chip cookies (and eating dough and licking spatulas).  It is not a week for ponderings and writing.  That will come later.  In the meantime, there are babies to hold, games of hide-and-seek to play, and first reading lessons with Hop on Pop…

So, my apologies if you’ve checked in here for fresh devotional fodder…

Lord willing, I’ll be back  next week with current ponderings.  Thanks for your patience ( :   Lots of little people on  my mind…

–LSCalvin3

The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.  Blessed is the [family] whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. Ps.33:11,12

“[May] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know… what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” Eph.1:17,18

Mothering Memories and my debt to grace

LIVE IT!

It’s happening, at last!

The long overdue photo album is getting worked on!  I had intended it as a gift when my firstborn graduated from high school…then thought maybe I would get it done by the time he got married…or at least by the time his firstborn came along? 

Well,  eleven years have passed since that first goal vanished from sight.  And now there are four little likenesses of my son under his roof.  It is time for this album to make its way into their hands, for them to see their daddy when he was their ages…

At 3 months…Micah 1

 

At 18 months…

Micah 2

 

At 3 years…

Micah 3

 

And at 4 1/2 years…

Micah 4

He was once a child and he has grown to be a man with children of his own.  I am reliving this week many mothering memories. Both precious and a little painful.

I was once a young imperfect mom intent on raising perfect children while largely in denial of my own imperfections.  I cringe now at the values I once clung to. 

Being perfect seemed more valuable than experiencing forgiveness. 

Being ‘good’ seemed a rational goal.  But now I wonder, is it so much  about being ‘good’, or about  knowing you are not so very good, but you are cherished just as you are?

Too often I sacrificed relationship in the pursuit of performance.

I aimed at perfection instead of recognizing we are and ever will be imperfect and indebted to Grace. 

It is a wise mom who realizes the parameters of her calling.  Some objectives are beyond our control—for instance, the objective of producing  godly children.  That is our desire but is it our calling? If your brow is furrowing at this moment consider reading this article by an empty nester mom I have not met named Gina Smith. 

“I Was Never Called to Raise “Godly Children!”

Her point is that godliness is not a goal we can accomplish by any amount of good parenting, character training, discipline or a dozen other routes. We are dependent on God’s grace to intervene and change hearts.  We might make them behave; we might enforce rules but we can’t create godly children.  Only God can do that.

As I brood over pictures and journal entries written years ago on the front lines of a busy household, I wonder, was I  wanting to rear Pharisees or Publicans?  The Pharisee could stand and thank God he was not a common sinner; he was ‘good’.  I bet his kids knew how to sit still in church too!   But it was the Publican whom God heard.  He knew himself to be an unworthy sinner and cried, “God, be merciful to me a sinner”. He was the one who went back home forgiven. (Luke 18:9ff)

Did I  want my kids to comprehend grace or be good enough not to need it?

Unintentionally we may produce ‘good’ kids with proud hearts instead of pointing them to God’s goodness so they can be forever humbled and forgiven people.

Do we strive to build character at the expense of laying the foundational understanding that our goodness is filthy rags apart from the Spirit’s transformation of our hearts and motives?

I am now an old imperfect mom–a converted Pharisee,  recognizing more and more my actual indebtedness to God’s grace. I am grateful for a long-suffering God who doesn’t strike the Pharisee dead for his presumption.  And as I stick down pictures of this lad with the perpetual grin and endless energy, I’m grateful for the strong Redeemer we both have found.  The Lord of Hosts is His name. (Jer.50:34)  He is not bound by our mistakes.  He is not limited by our weakness.  And His Redemption rolls on down through the years exchanging our messes for His grace.  Yes, this is what I want this photo album to celebrate.  God has been good to us, for He is good. 

And with these loosely outlined thoughts I must conclude for now.  For you see, this album is not quite finished and tomorrow we leave to bear it to little eyes who will wonder that their hero could once have been as young as they… So for today, this album is my calling as a Grandmom!

I welcome your feedback always. 

–LS

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts….And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” (Zech.4:6,7)

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain…
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Ps.127:1-3 ESV

“We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us…for a short time as it seemed best to them*, but [the Father of spirits] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”   Heb.12:9,10

*There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Prov. 14:12 ESV

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P.S. If you come from my era you may appreciate this upbeat reminder that “Nobody’s perfect except for the Lord” , as only Keith Green can say it!

Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?!

LOVE IT!, READ IT!

The King was exasperated, and desperate.  Wearing sackcloth was so irritating and what good had it done?  The unending siege was driving people to insanity.  Mothers were haggling over their own babies’ flesh! The King had had enough.  He would have the prophet’s head, oh yes he would.  After all, this trouble was undoubtedly from the Lord.  Why not kill his prophet! And with that resolution he sent his messenger to relay it to Elisha.

“Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?!” he hollered through Elisha’s closed and bolted door.

The King was not far behind leaning on his trusty captain for support. They held out no hope of the Lord’s being able to save them from starvation. Even ‘if the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?’ (II Kings 7:2) was how the captain put it.

But there was a reason to wait and not to open the doors to the enemy hordes.  Tomorrow things would be different. Tomorrow there would be an all-you-can-eat buffet. Tomorrow there would be plenty.  If they could just wait for tomorrow…

Faith is like that.  You can’t see the reward. You can’t taste it or touch it.  The alternatives even start to look good, desirable, harmless. “Did God really say…”  And we may begin to doubt that His instructions are our best bet. It may be true that without faith it’s impossible to please God.  And it may even be true that faith can move mountains.  But when the mountain is in your backyard blocking the sun and when it just doesn’t seem to be moving…it’s easy to doubt that waiting on God is worth the while.

The lepers were the first to discover God’s intervention.  They had so little to lose.  They lived outside the city gate in no-man’s-land anyway, outcasts. So they had ventured over to the Syrian camp to see if they might be shown mercy and given a little something to fend off starvation.  And lo and behold, the camp was abandoned.  The tents were there, full of provisions. The horses and donkeys too.  But the besieging army, the Syrians, had fled for their lives out of fear in an unseen army they had heard coming.  It was the Lord’s doing, His unseen way of saving His people just in time.  It had been worth the wait.  The siege was over. There was plenty for all, for the taking.

Only the captain who had voiced his doubts did not live to share in the feasting.  He was trampled in the gate by the hungry surging mob.

Are you waiting for your faith to be sight—feeling like you’re starving in a besieged city and about to cave in to the enemy?  Have you waited ‘forever’ for your prayers to bring results? your ship to come in?  your God to show Himself strong on your behalf?

I’m reminding myself this week that God’s timing is impeccable.  Never in a hurry, never late,  He molds His own with their eternal well-being in view and He has literally all the time in the world! 

While we think in terms of a tasty morsel, He has an eternity of dining with Him in view.  While we wait for answers, he waits for us to listen to what’s on His heart. Peter put it this way.  “The Lord is  not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
II Pet.3:9

My requests can be so short-sighted, so happiness-oriented.  I want to be happy.  I want our kids to be happy.  In short, it would be nice if everyone could be care-free, sickness free, accident free, and… well, HAPPY!  But God knows there is no true happy without HOLY.  And the route to holiness is not all happy, nor is it instantaneous! “He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” (Heb.12:10)

It’s a good thing He does not give us everything we ask for. He has so much more in mind.

We may think the Lord slow to act, slow to answer, slow to race to our rescue and deliver us from all our enemies…but could it be that He is not slow, but patient with our slowness?  Could it be He waits for us to be ready for rescue—acknowledging our dependence, watching and waiting.

I don’t know about you, but there are ‘unanswered’ prayers in my life that keep me coming back to God to plead ‘What is going on?!… What do I need to do?!’  and at last, to learn to listen more than I talk.  And then I begin to see sin in me that has gone unacknowledged.  I see I am to blame for consequences I am now trying to escape or undo… And I am brought to repentance, to a fresh understanding of God’s mercy, and to a fuller grasp of His grace, and yes, His patience with me and with the ones I pray for.

It is the kindness and patience of God that leads us all to repentance.(Rom.2:4) He wastes no time or circumstance.  His patience is our salvation.  We do well to wait for the Lord, always.  “Then you will know that I am the LORD, those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (Is.49:23)

And in the waiting, He gives us His word to fortify our souls!   Read the stories.  Ponder the promises. Take note of the commands.  Savor the grace.  It’s all written down for our benefit!

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” I Cor.10:11 ESV

He’s worth the wait!

–LS

P.S.  I am trying out a new way of reading the Bible this year—reading a chapter from all the different genres each day.  And I am continually struck with God’s grace and man’s need of it. I love the way one passage comments on another when read in this way.  If you have yet to make a plan to dig in to the Word of God this year, and would like to try something new and different, check out this system at my Bible Reading Plans page on the side pop-out menu.
or click here!

If you would prefer to read chronologically, here is a simple plan. The man proposing it, Keith Ferrin, came to speak in our town last week.  His purpose is to spur believers on to LOVE the Word of God.  All sorts of practical encouragement can be found on his website (including other plans; there is no one-size-fits-all plan!).  I highly commend it to you.  His chronological Bible reading plan can be found here.

–LS

“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” Hosea 12:6

“…Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” II Tim.3:14-17 ESV

The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. …Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him… Joel 2:11-14 ESV

Jonah:  “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 4:2 ESV

Epic or Holocaust? —just depends…

LOVE IT!, READ IT!

The prospects were bleak. The odds overwhelming. Most everyone else had retreated trembling to await their fate. They had no weapons for defense. Their leader had a sword but no idea what to do with it… They were stuck, helpless, like sheep without a shepherd while wolves ravage the flock.

The story is a very old one. Its setting is the stuff of an Epic, or a Holocaust, just depends whether a hero rises to the occasion.

Could it be a faint reflection too of the state of the Church in our own times? The world, the flesh and the Devil pose a daunting threat. The troops are ‘caving’ and vast numbers have misplaced their one Divine-issue offensive weapon—”the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

But there’s hope, there always is when you’re on the winning side, right? And there is a hero ready to step out and see what can be done. He’s only one man, but he has a sword and he has armor (and a friend to help him carry it!) No, this is not the tale of David and Goliath. But perhaps the lesson is the same. Big enemy, but bigger God.

It just takes someone willing to believe it, and to step up courageously in His name, sword in hand, to see what God will do.

That someone was Jonathan. While his fellow countrymen scurried to hide themselves in caves and holes and rocks and tombs and cisterns(!)
I Sam.13:6 Jonathan looked at his armor-bearer and said, “Come on, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised… It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.” I Samuel 14:6 He was ready and willing to step out ‘as is’ with just a young lad and a sword at his side, and see how God might choose to intervene.

It would be just chapters later that the young David, would challenge the mindset of the culture surrounding him with similar words: “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” I Sam.17:26 No wonder he and Jonathan became bosom buddies! Each lived seeing beyond the visible enemy to the Invisible God–Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And each in his turn dared to step out and see what God would do.

And God was pleased to act. Jonathan’s sword took down twenty men in short order. Panic ensued. As did an earthquake! Now it was the enemy’s turn to tremble in their boots. Mass confusion ensued and soon the enemy was destroying itself and fleeing in droves. “So the LORD saved Israel that day.” I Sam.14:23 But it all started with a man saying, “Come on, let’s go over and have a look…and see what the Lord will do.”

Where does this kind of God-confidence come from? I’m pretty sure of one thing—it’s not caught from hanging out in a cave commiserating with woe-be-gone companions about how bad things are. They are, no doubt about that. The enemy is strong. But we are God’s people! And we’ve been given His Word. In it we are given all that we need for life and godliness in any age, (II Pet.1:3,4) because in it is the knowledge of God and of His commitments to His people via great and precious promises which are for all time.

Sin is rampant, in and out of the church, and no less destructive than the fiercest Philistine raiding party! But God’s power to transform us is greater. He invites us to escape ‘the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire’ II Pet.1:4, again, by taking Him at His Word.

How then do we keep our confidence in the LORD of Heaven’s armies, so that we are ready and willing to step out in faith and see what He will do on our respective battlefields?

I can’t help noticing that sword Jonathan held. It was one of only two swords available to the Israelite army. (His father, King Saul, held the other one) Their oppressors had seen to it that they had no weapons with which to defend themselves. This is not the case for the North American church. We have Bibles aplenty! My hunch is that the reason we lack Jonathan’s courage to emerge from our holes and see what God will do, is that we are more familiar with the culture that surrounds us than we are with God’s Word.

Could it be that our culture has shaped our mindsets about sin, our selves and our God, more than God’s Word has?

I love the Word. But it’s been a long while since I read the whole of it. And with the New Year I’ve been considering what changes to make in the way I read it. I’ve slipped into a rather ‘devotional’ approach to reading (more on that another time?) geared toward finding nuggets for me rather than just reading for what God wants to reveal about HIMSELF! So I’m taking on a new system of reading that I’m really excited about.

I’ve read the Bible through before but never this way. And already, in just a week’s time I’m encouraged by seeing the Big Picture of a Big and Holy God who is intent on Redeeming small and sinful man, no matter what. The theme is there over and over again, no matter what book or chapter you read, but it’s never so plain as when you read across various genres and books in one sitting. And that is my new plan.

I’ve outlined it in detail on my Bible Reading Plans page  And I’d love it if you’d join me this year for the grand tour of God’s Words to man across the centuries. So may we be ready to step out and see what our great God will do despite overwhelming odds. He is able!

–LS

“The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress.” Ps. 46:7

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,…” Eph.6:17,18

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” II Thess.1:11-12 ESV