Well, I’ve come to Genesis 37 which means one thing: the Joseph saga begins. I half dread it and I’ll tell you why. No matter how many times I read it, Joseph’s gonna do the same thing. He’s gonna tell his brothers his dreams & he’s gonna wear that dang coat to go check on them.
Here’s what I’d like to say this morning: you don’t have to go tell every (proverbial or actual) dream or vision God gives you. Particularly to people who already resent you. Don’t be a smarty pants. Some things are better left between you and God. Journal them. Or tell them
privately and prayerfully to a mentor. For starters, you may have accidentally made it up, misunderstood or misinterpreted God’s leadership. Or there may have been too many jalapeños in your salsa the night before. For seconders, if God grants you a speck of insight that you may
lead or be greatly used, you need to know and accept in advance that, coinciding with the development of that servanthood will be the hardest tests of your entire life and you’ll likely fail a good bit of them. If you are blessed indeed, the Lord will pummel that flesh of yours
into humility. If you strut around in your multicolored coat, all you’ll have done is draw attention to yourself when you make a fool of yourself. (Not saying Joseph did. Saying show offs do.) And if perchance God does make you into a great leader, He will be faithful to pop your
ego like a balloon with so many thorns that, when you look in the mirror, all you see’s grace. What Jesus said to the greatest heroes of our faith on that dark night will never ever be untrue: the greatest among us will be servant of all. Great leaders never think they’re great.
They think they’re graced. You’re not ready to be greatly used until you have no earthly idea why God would use you at all.
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I’ve repeatedly asked this question in good faith in direct messages to various SBC leaders & have yet to receive a clear, concise, consistent answer. Please, for those of us seeking to understand, define CRT in, say, 4 sentences. Is preaching against racism “any version” of it?
It seems to me that “any version” of it is troublingly subjective. Again, I am asking this in good faith. How on earth will long standing racism ever be rooted out of the SBC when anyone who speaks boldly of our history can be accused and perhaps dismissed for a “version” of CRT?
And please, do not send me a link to another article. I don’t want another article. I am asking sincerely for a definition from the SBC I served for 40 years. I want to understand what CRT is and the greater danger it poses than the one before us with systemic injustice. Help me.
—1905
Lyricist Civilla D. Martin
Composer Charles H. Gabriel
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not 1 of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”
These are days when, for any number of reasons, we could give way to such discouragement. Days when we sorrow both over all that has changed and all that seems to never change. When the quiet falls upon me and my heart sinks low, I sit in it for a while with Jesus & then I sing.
My Bible reading this morning was Genesis 35. Jacob & his large family have made their long trek back to Canaan. They’re between Bethel & Ephrath when Rachel goes into a brutal labor. She lives only long enough for the baby to be born &, with her last breath, names him Ben-oni.
The name means “Son of My Sorrow.” The sentence ends with these words: “but his father called him Benjamin.” (Son of the Right Hand) Benjamin has a unique place among the children of Jacob for 2 reasons: He was the only one born in Canaan; he was the only one named by his father.
All the others were named by their mothers. There are numerous possibilities for the name change but the most obvious explanation is the most stirring. Jacob knew the power of a name-change. After all, had God not renamed him Israel? The patriarch had answered all his life to a
Normally, on the days the Lord stirs me to share, I’m perfectly happy to have brief exchanges over the chapter I just read in my morning devotions. Not this morning. This morning I wish we were live & I could say, “Open your Bibles to Genesis 28” and we could have a legit lesson.
So I’ll just point you that direction. Jacob, the heel grabber, has just cheated his brother Esau for the 2nd time. 1st his birthright then his blessing. The scene in the wake of discovery is heart-wrenching, Esau weeping loudly to Isaac, “Do you have only 1 blessing, my father?”
Rebekah, the scheming mother, overhears Esau planning to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac dies so she sends him to her brother in Haran. On the way, Jacob stops for the night, lays his head on a stone & has a dream. “A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky and
One of my favorite things about the apostle Paul is his absolute unwillingness to surrender his joy. He refuses to do it.
Even in his imprisonments.
Even after beatings. Floggings.
Even when he knows some are proclaiming Christ not sincerely at all but out of selfish ambition.
Even in all his persecutions. In all the stress of the young churches. Conflicts. Anxieties. Sleepless nights. In his hunger. In sickness. Physical weakness. In his death sentence. They could take his life but they could not take his joy. This is our heritage, brothers & sisters.
We’ve been left a legacy of joy in our strain, struggle and pain. And not by itself. A legacy alone could prove only to heap up crushing guilt for what we couldn’t live up to. We were left more than a legacy. We were left the same Holy Spirit who galvanized their stubborn joy.
Years ago, my pastor, a wonderful man and a loving, faithful shepherd to his flock, ended a great conversation between us with words I didn’t see coming. Words that stopped me in my tracks. “I know I can always count on you to be loyal to me, Beth.” Wait wait wait. Define loyal.
NO. No, you can’t. I’d try my hardest to be counted on to be loving, grace-filled, faithful &, God helping me, Holy Spirit filling me, godly. But when loyalty demands dishonesty & what’s perceived as the right end justifies unrighteous means & piety serves as cover for duplicity,
loyalty to man has demanded disloyalty to Christ. I don’t care how it looks from the outside. Don’t care if it looks like rightness won. Sowing to the flesh reaps corruption. Every time. Every time. EVERY TIME. The only means to reaping what’s of the Spirit is sowing the Spirit.