Monday Message

"I don't have a Bible." "I don't have time to go to church anymore." "I work for the money. God isn't in my work." These are all statements I've made at one time or another. Fortunately, not for some time now. It seems easy to blame remoteness, lack of access to resources and shortness of time for us not feeling close to God. But at least we haven't been sold by our siblings into slavery, wrongly accused of an offence and thrown in jail only to be forgotten by those who said they'd help. All this and more happened to Joseph before he rose to power in Egypt AND he didn't have a bible to carry with him. Was God remote from him? Had He left Joseph behind? Not at all. Take a look... Genesis 39:2 The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:5 From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lor...

 Last week I looked at Joseph's dream and the brothers' reaction to it. This week we take a large step forward in time to the trial of Stephen before the Sanhedrin, in Acts. He gives a recount of the nation of Israel and as a part of that, he says the following: Acts 7:8b-15 …Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation. “These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favour before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace. “But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery, and our ancestors ran out of food. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons—our ancestors—to buy some. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they...

Long before Martin Luther King Jr had his dream, there was someone who had dreams that foretold great things. However, Joseph's dreams weren't very popular with his family and friends. Check out Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of the brothers reactions:  Joseph's Dreams Genesis 37:5-7 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. “Listen to this dream,” he said. “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Joseph is a really important person in the early bible. His story connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. His story is found in Genes...