Saturday, 1/17/2015

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein

GENESIS 41

Two years pass and Joseph is still in prison.  God though is about to change the game.  Pharaoh has an inexplainable dream.  None of the wise men of Egypt could interpret it.  It is now that the cupbearer remembers Joseph.  Pharaoh sends for him...

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and no one can interpret it.  But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it."

"I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires."

After the interpretation of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.  Pharaoh makes Joseph second in command to only him.

"Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."

Joseph marries and has two sons and accumulates massive amounts of grain for Egypt during the seven years of plenty.  After they end, a massive famine affects all of Egypt and all the countries surrounding them.  

MATTHEW 13:1-32

Jesus is pursued by large crowds and so he decides to teach them using parables.  The story  of the seed and the soil and the wheat and the weeds.  Both address believers and the end times.  In both scenarios.  The disciples are confused by the meaning and come to Jesus to explain further.

...The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (22-23)

JOURNAL

It blows my mind that Joseph really goes from being left, abandoned and in prison to second in command of everything. It has been a long wait for Joseph, yet somehow he never seems to grow bitter.  Without a Bible, friends, family...nothing but prayer and his faith.  Joseph lives out exactly what Jesus is speaking of and he does it with no resources.  God provides all the resources and God shows up in ways that can never be explained.

When I think of Joseph, I can't help but think of all the ways I let this life choke out the seed that God has planted in my heart.  It took 13 years for it all to play out in Joseph's life.  I get impatient when God doesn't show up the next day.  Yet the key to all seems to be in living each day for the joy of the day.  Not in what tomorrow will bring.

I write this 20 minutes before midnight.  The day is almost done.  I pray that tomorrow I embrace the blessings of this life.  But the reality is to accept with joy whatever is given. God and only God can grow it and multiply it, but it must take root in a heart that trusts and does not choke it out with the trappings, worries and promises of this world. 

"God loves you! So do I! Make it a great day."