July was quite the month. We had the Walk A Block for Jesus. That was
some good stuff. My oldest grandson went
this time and he said that he walked more than a block. I told him that if we had 20 people and we
walked 20 blocks, it averages out to a block a person.
He liked the fact that I used math in
my explanation but he didn’t like my explanation. I think he went to 55 houses. I asked him if he went to 50 houses and he
said, “No. 55.”
We had VBS and a pool party to
boot. As has been the case for the past
several years, we had some VBS graduates that moved into the teacher’s aides
and support position. It’s always good
to have a lot of help.
We had a funeral for one of our most
loved. We celebrated Laura’s life.
We had camp with 27 campers and 3
counselors. We are a connectional
denomination and our kids got to meet old friends and make new ones and we pray
that they grew closer to God.
We had a fellowship meal. Our numbers have been dwindling at these, but
we are still trying to stay the course of maintaining the fellowship of the
body with specific events.
We had a memorial service that Garrett
and Laci officiated. Laci told me that
Garrett didn’t do anything. If that was
in fact the case, I’m sure it was because Garrett isn’t getting to preach
enough. I will set him up with a
three-Sunday series here in the near future.
We had another wonderful Teacher
Appreciation meal to kick off the school year.
And we did a couple different things
from the pulpit this past month. In
addition to Danny filling the pulpit last Sunday, Tom broke away from Genesis
in the traditional service to preach salvation and our command to love one
another.
Most of the time, I preach to the
saints-those washed in the blood of the Lamb. But I took 2 Sundays to continue
my messages from Genesis only in the First Light service and took those same 2
Sundays to reach out to those who may have needed something more evangelical in
this service.
And if you who are saved happened to
be here for those messages, I refer you to the lyrics of I Love to Tell the
Story.
I love to tell the story, for those
who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear
it like the rest;
Most of the time, I take both services
to preach the same scripture with two different messages. There has to be some overlap, but I recall
when the Search Committee asked me a very pointed question. “Tom, I don’t want to ask you to dumb it down
with your messages, but could you dumb it down?”
I’m not going to tell you who asked
that, but his initials are Bob Nagle.
I said that I could but that I
wouldn’t, but what I would do is cut the meat into smaller pieces.
All of that said, to say we are back
to the 2 messages from the Genesis model again.
Some of you get both messages on most Sundays, but of greater importance
than receiving two messages on Sunday mornings is the daily reading of your
chapter. We are almost finished with
Genesis.
Do your best to read your chapter
daily through the end of the book. We
are very close. Hang in there. You will be blessed.
Jacob and his 10 sons are in Canaan
and they are out of food again. There is
food in Egypt but the leader of this nation told them don’t come back without
their youngest brother. Simeon was held captive in Egypt. To get food and get
Simeon back, Benjamin must go to Egypt.
Dad does like this. He thinks that he has already lost
Joseph. He doesn’t want to lose Benjamin
as well. That would be both of the
children that he had by the woman he truly loved—Rachel. It’s not that he didn’t love the rest of his
family, but these children were special to him. Rachel was already dead. He
could not bear to lose Benjamin as well, but what were his alternatives?
Jacob asked why his sons had told this
man so much about his family. They had
not recognized the Lord of Egypt as their brother Joseph and Joseph or
Zaphenath-Paneah as he was known in Egypt, knew exactly what questions to ask.
Jacob conceded the terms and the
brothers set out for Egypt with the silver that they came home with, and more
treasures with which to buy grain. Judah had offered to guarantee Benjamin’s
return with the lives of his own sons.
It sounds bold, but could Jacob really
embrace killing two of his own grandchildren if Benjamin did not return to
him? It seemed like a no-win scenario,
but the sons of Israel were off to Egypt once more.
The brothers returned to Egypt and
Joseph had a servant take them to his personal quarters. They presumed the worst.
Now the men were frightened when they
were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the
silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us
and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”
This ploy of putting the silver back
in the food sacks of Joseph’s brothers had everyone worried. Being called spies was bad enough but now it
seemed there was evidence of theft. They
knew something bad was coming their way.
They are going to make us slaves and take our
donkeys.
I have to laugh a little here. If you are a slave, having your own donkey
was pretty unlikely anyway. Fear is very
adept at debilitating the best of us and fear was at work among these brothers.
But fear did not prevail. Joseph was not yet ready to reveal himself to
his brothers, but he fed them well—especially Benjamin and received their
silver and other gifts, and assured them that God had taken care of them.
This went better than expected for the
11 brothers. Simeon was back with them. They were being fed well. They might even get to keep their donkeys.
The same cannot be said of
Joseph. He was emotionally torn at
seeing his brothers. Yes, 10 of them had
done him wrong but they were still his brothers.
And of course, there was
Benjamin. Joseph had to hide himself
from his brothers so they would not see him cry. He didn’t have to worry about eating with
them. That would not have been proper.
The brothers ate well but would not
share a table with Joseph, whom they still did not recognize.
The chapter ends here but there is
more in store before Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. They will get something of an emotional
roller coaster ride themselves, but for now, we leave them enjoying a good feast.
So what can we take from this part of
the story? We could send a
recommendation to the biblical editors that they put about 3 chapters into 1
instead of the Hollywood endings to each episode.
Or we can look at fear and guilt and
how they can debilitate us. Even when
the brothers had grain in the bags, they had to contend with fear and guilt.
Even when they were having a meal,
fear and guilt were still lurking close by.
Fear and guilt rob us of the abundance
in abundant life. Fear and guilt cheat
us out of peace. Fear and guilt were never meant to govern the quality of our
lives.
In some ways, Joseph was teaching his
brothers a lesson. In other ways, the
brothers were imposing the tougher sanctions on themselves. They could not shake fear and guilt. Worry prevailed.
We need to understand that while these
two factors were consuming to these brothers, they must not interfere with our
lives. We are not people of fear.
Do you remember be strong and
courageous?
How many times have you read, Fear
not?
Do we embrace these words: Perfect
love casts out fear?
We can’t fault these brothers for
carrying around guilt and fear but they are not examples to us of how to live.
Should they have had more faith in God?
Probably, but we who live in this age are without excuse.
Fear must not govern.
I have used this example many times,
often with a discussion of the third servant in the Parable of the
Talents. Consider the football team that
has trailed the entire game. Their game
plan keeps them a touchdown or so behind.
They are doing what they practiced and expected to work but it’s not
working well enough to win.
In the last few minutes of the game,
they start doing things that they were afraid wouldn’t work. If they didn’t work this time or if it made
things worse, what did it matter? Doing the same things, they had been doing
would guarantee the loss.
So why not try something different?
You don’t have anything more to lose because you are already losing.
Often at about the same time, the team
that has been ahead the whole game stops doing what has been working and starts
playing not to lose.
In almost a scripted fashion, the one
team makes an amazing drive to come from behind at the last minute and the team
that led the entire game is stunned in disbelief.
Somebody flipped the script on fear.
We don’t see that as much as we used
to because coaching staffs and players are aware of the dynamics of fear and
train not to give in to them.
Fear still posts a few victories
nonetheless.
We should be better than the best coached
teams because our Coach is God himself and he tells us to be strong and
courageous, not to be afraid or discouraged.
He is in our struggles with us.
So how do I wrap up this story that is
a big step in the story of God’s Chosen People coming to Egypt and being
enslaved there for 400 years? By jumping
ahead to the time when they come out of the land of Egypt and wander around in the
wilderness for 40 years, until finally, Joshua leads them into the Promised
Land.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong
and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God
will be with you wherever you go.”
Amen
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