Category: Daily Devotionals

THE REUNION 

[They] came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him. Genesis 46:6

         A movie was made twenty years ago, called JOSEPH, a powerful representation of the entire story. You watched his life unfold from a young boy to the ruler of Egypt. My favorite part of the movie is the reunion between Jacob and Joseph at the very end. The scene is forever etched in my memory and several times a year, I will put in the DVD and watch that three-minute clip again. Let me paint the picture for you.

         Jacob and his entire family are walking in the desert toward Egypt. There are several hundred of them. Jacob is out in front. He is old, slowly plodding along with the help of a cane and a son on each side. His face is determined but the weariness of such a long journey is evident.

         The scene changes and Joseph is leaving the gates of Egypt in a royal entourage. In the chariot with him are his two sons, both under the age of ten. In the other chariot are Pharaoh and a few of his leaders who go to support Joseph. You see them come to the crest of a hill that overlooks the desert floor below.

         The dust settles and as it does, the scene of several hundred nomads in the distance fill his view. Joseph knows who they are. Though a mile away, Joseph cannot wait. He leaves Pharaoh and drives his personal chariot at breakneck speed downward into the valley to meet them. As he nears his father, horses are recklessly pulled to a stop. Joseph jumps out, sees his father a few dozen feet away, and is overcome. He loses all strength and crumbles to his knees. Jacob rushes to him, draws his head into the folds of his tunic, and engages in an embrace that is unforgettable. “My son. Praise be to God. My son!” There is weeping for a long time as everyone else stands at a distance to give father and son this moment.

         Jacob finally looks up to see two young boys in Joseph’s chariot. He understands. “These are your sons. My grandchildren. “Come,” Jacob says. “Come, so I may bless you.” He speaks prophetic words over each boy and kisses the tops of their heads. Joseph dries his father’s tears and tells him that God brought him to Egypt to save their lives. There is joy ahead and a good life in Egypt.

         Now, maybe you have to see the movie to be moved. (I’ve provided a link below so you can purchase it for yourself.) I can never watch this reunion without being moved. And I can never see it without thinking of the reunion that is coming between Jesus and me. I believe it will be like this. Finally, our eyes meet at a distance. Finally, the embrace I’ve been waiting for all my life. What about bowing at His feet in worship? Afterward.

I’ve only caught a nuance of how you feel me. I get a sense of it each time we talk in prayer. But I’ll see the full effect at our reunion.   The pleasure of my company that you describe in Scripture humbles me, Lord. Amen

DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM OUR FATHERS

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. Genesis 46:2-3

            God fathers each child differently. His path is a solitary one and my journey will never imitate that of my parents. If my parents were iconic in their faith, the expectations for me to follow in their footsteps will be impossible to attain. I am not either parent nor should I try to be.

            Isaac, Jacob’s father, was told by God to avoid Egypt during his time of famine. God made it clear that Egypt was off limits. But God’s plan for Jacob was different. In his famine, Egypt was the place he was to go and settle. Doing something different from his father had to feel frightening at first. Jacob must have been confused as he embarked on a journey so peculiar.

            God stretched me out of my family’s mold sometime in my mid-forties. My views of some peripheral biblical issues differed from that of my father and the legalistic church I was raised in. There were some tense discussions and feelings from his disapproval created a shadow over our relationship.With time, it improved as it became clear to him that God had His hand on my life. Before he died, God moved us on to the same page through some ‘end of life’ experiences and I am so thankful for this move of God’s grace.

            To complicate matters, I married young into a well-known Christian family whose patriarch was a famous evangelist. Things were harmonious throughout the early years of our marriage because both Ron and I held to the family’s views on most every biblical issue. Eventually though, God began to take us on the journey He had planned for us. It meant leaving home and the ministry his father started. Though we still agreed on the tenets of the Gospel, our interpretations of secondary issues of grace didn’t gel. Again, we experienced feelings that we were outsiders and it was painful to no longer fit.

            God’s message to each disciple is clear. We are His children first and members of our earthly family second. Egypt may be denied to our fathers but permissible for us. God is a kind Father who leads deliberately ~ giving His child the courage to take steps away from our ‘family’s way of doing things’. The fallout can make us second-guess our new direction but God gives grace with the call to go where He sends us. His voice is wild and wonderful; his ways are peculiar and solitary. Any price we pay is long compensated by the joy of hearing God say, “Well done!”

My heart begs to be shaped by You, and by no one else. Amen

THE RIGHT KIND OF COMFORT

My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”  Psalm 119:82

One of my favorite paintings is one of a young man entering heaven.  He is weary, barely walking, and Jesus catches him in a welcoming embrace.  The comfort he seeks in embraces and shared tears greets him in person. Continue reading “THE RIGHT KIND OF COMFORT” →

The spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” Genesis 45:27b-28

         It’s amazing how, with Christ, my heart can adapt to a place of contentment. Jacob was thrilled with the news that Joseph was alive, so much so, that he was willing lay all other hurts aside and focus on the joy of seeing his son again. Joseph’s supposed death had only been one of his many griefs. The way he died, the brother’s treachery, these were nearly as crushing as losing his son. At this point in the story however, the joy of being reunited with Joseph eclipsed the pain of all else that took place before.

         Nothing replaces the payoff that comes when I take time to grieve. Like Jacob, my tears are spent and I am open to a new perspective. God’s perspective. I am willing to settle for something different and am empowered by the Spirit to adapt to see life differently.

         A neighbor had to leave her home of 43 years to enter an assisted living facility. She grieved over all the familiar things she would have to leave behind. With time however, she grew to cherish the handpicked things she would take with her to her new home. God gave her the grace to settle in new surroundings and find contentment.

         It is human nature to look at what I lost rather than what I have left. I want what I once had and overlook the treasures still in my hand. God will help me re-align and re-adjust. All grief gives me an opportunity to lift my eyes to what is eternal. I find comfort, and I find joy, as I review the promises of God for the future. Only this perspective can lead me from the throes of unending grief and bitter tears. When I think my hands are empty, God shows me that they are, indeed, full of blessings I couldn’t see before. The child of God is never without riches even in the worst of times.

Change is certain. Security is also certain. Show me what is in my hands. Amen

HOLY IMAGINATION

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.  Genesis 2:19

         Most Christians starve their God-given imaginative gifts and believe that sacred dreaming is reckless and might border on witchcraft?  Does it?

         God formed the dust of the ground and made cows, cats, dogs, monkeys, and antelope.  After he completed each, he nudged each one to go to Adam so Adam could name them.  I love how Genesis describes this part of history.  “God brought them to the man to see what he would call them.”  There was a bit of suspense as God saw Adam tap into his creativity. “What shall I call something soft, furry, with a tail?”  God enjoyed seeing Adam use his mind in a creative way.

         I am made in the image of God.  He, the one who imagined the earth before He made it, has infused me with the same desire to dream and create.  How can I know if my imagination is safe to use?  I take Isaiah’s advice.  “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.”  Isaiah 40:26  If my imagination is brought captive to prayer and scripture, then it is a gifting like all others.

         I believe one of the reasons our prayer meetings and personal prayer times are so dull is that we fail to use our imagination in prayer.  What happens when we take a scriptural principle and develop how it might look in the desert of human need?  The possibilities are endless.

• I can see God kissing a heart of stone and transforming it into a heart of flesh when I pray Ezekiel 36:26 creatively.
• As I pray from Isaiah 49, I can see God turning my speech into sharp arrows of truth as I ask Him to give me words like Jesus.
• I can see God standing on the waves of my personal storm, saying, “Peace!  Be still!” as I pray from Mark 4:39

         Just as God brought the animals to Adam to name, he brings opportunities my way to engage my mind in ways that more resemble play than work.  Adam wasn’t a child when he thought up all the names yet I picture him having the time of his life as each animal emerged from behind a tree.  He laughed, pointed, exclaimed over God’s playful and creative side, and then conjured up a name.  I know a sense of his joy.  Most days, writing with God in the morning is like playtime.

Because Adam walked with you, his imagination was holy.  Help me use my creative gifts with more confidence.  Amen

A LIFETIME OF WAITING

So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. Genesis 45:25-28

         When Joseph disappeared from Jacob’s life, something broke inside of this father’s heart. Hope died. His spirit withered. It would be this way for another 20+ years until he got the news that Joseph was not dead but very much alive in Egypt. When he heard it, he could not believe it was true. He had already grieved his son’s death. Disillusionment had been his companion. His heart had grown cold to good news. When enough evidence had been presented however, Jacob’s heart revived. It came to life after a lifetime of learning to live with disappointment.

         Can God do a new thing in my later years? Yes. When something catastrophic happens in my teens and I learn to adapt by closing off my heart, can God introduce something called hope years later? Yes.

       When I’ve been a dreamer in my twenties and one disappointment after another causes me to shove my dreams underground, can God resurrect them decades later? Yes. In my mortality, decades seem like an eternity and fool me into believing that life is always going to be this way. Trust in a God who can write a new plotline no longer seems like an option.

         What is it you’re waiting for today? Or, should I ask what you’ve stopped hoping for? Longevity has revealed a trail of disappointment and it would suggest that it’s futile to trust God for anything different. You believe that prayer and hope in God’s promises is for someone still enjoying the dreams of their youth. Oh, it’s not so. Not everything is as it appears. Jacob held what he thought was bloody coat of his son Joseph, but the evidence of his supposed death was a sham. Joseph was very much alive and living out his faith a day at a time until some future day when he could send word to His father that all was well.

         This could be the very day of your breakthrough. Tell your heart to stand at attention to see the miraculous hand of God write the next chapter of your life.

 I lived to see my own resurrection. All because of You. Amen

BLESSED BY ASSOCIATION

And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Genesis 45:16

         Would Pharaoh have honored Joseph’s brothers if he’d known them as Hebrews visiting Egypt? Never. The blessing came because of how much he loved Joseph. Whom Joseph loved, Pharaoh loved.

         I descend from those whom people honored. My father, a principal in our public school system, was well loved and respected. Because of that, honor was given to his family. My father-in-law, an iconic evangelist, well loved for his passion for reaching the lost, was also well loved and respected. By carrying his last name, I am blessed on the road more often than I remember. My husband, Ron, is well loved. He leads well, has never made an enemy, and because of His reputation, I am blessed. Even today, because he is held in high regard with the owners of the company he works for, Daughters of Promise will receive a gift toward our office computers.

         Do I need to have an honorable family on earth in order to be blessed by association? No. That would be unfair if that were the only criterion.

Today, you and I are blessed because of our association to Jesus. God, His father, loves those whom the Son loves. Because reconciled us to His Father and made us brothers and sisters, God beckons us from the land of famine to the land of plenty. He provides everything we need for the journey. Our future and inheritance is guaranteed because Jesus has taken care of it.

         And my deliverer? Like Joseph, he was spurned and rejected by men. He was sold for financial gain to end up in chains before Pilate. His hardship paved the road for my redemption.

Father, I enjoy the smile You have for me today because I love Your Son. Bless those whom I love – because I am Yours. Amen

SHORT MEMORY OF MY SIN

You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you. Genesis 45:10-11

            What a promise. Family members that acted out against Joseph were forgiven to such an extent that promises of provision and protection were made for the rest of their lives. How easily would it have been for the brothers to distrust Joseph’s promises? Joseph could change his mind as he remembered their sins against him. They acted like his enemies after all.

            I was once God’s enemy. My acts against him were punishable by death. Yet, because of what Jesus did, God made me right with Him and called me His friend. Like Joseph, He has made sweeping promises of love, care, and protection toward me for the rest of my life and throughout eternity. How can I trust Him? I remember my sins, often walk in the shame of them, and shyness overtakes me. Confidence with God can be shaken on a daily basis.

            Humanly speaking, I’m nervous to claim God’s proclamations of love. I’m skittish to own the promises He’s made. Standing in faith is impossible if I am unsure of what God’s forgiveness really means. If I believe that God forgives like people forgive, I will be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I will have a short memory of my sin and believe that God does too.

            Joseph was a type of Jesus. He forgave and chose to put the brother’s betrayal behind him. Jesus does the same. He forgives, puts my sins behind His back and never takes them out again to rehearse my past. Salvation gives me a priceless gift, the gift of a clean slate. My history of enmity is buried at the cross and a covenantal love relationship is born. It is ironclad, not because of me, but because of Him. Jesus Christ speaks wedding vows to me that will be consummated in heaven. A Bridegroom who desires and longs for the one He loves keeps every promise.

            If I’m plagued by the memories of my sin, the rehearsal of my past is not a holy thing. It is a satanic attack. I’m called, as Jesus’ beloved, to grab my self-condemning thoughts and speak, out loud, His very Words that prove that I am a forgiven and cherished bride.

May my short memory take me back to the cross, not my sin. Give me more confidence in our relationship. Amen

WHO BENEFITS FROM MY REDEMPTION?

So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45:8

         In my opinion, this is an overlooked part of Joseph’s story. Because I’m self-focused, I get caught up with how Joseph felt on the other side of imprisonment. I imagine him being reunited with his brothers, and mostly, with his father. I never think about how Pharaoh benefitted from crossing paths with Joseph, that Joseph’s influence over Pharaoh was fatherly.

         To be a father is to be in a position to advise, to take care of or administrate. The day Joseph was dragged into Pharaoh’s court, Pharaoh gained a confidant; someone without an agenda. This was a priceless gift for a ruler. Never knowing who to trust and never allowing one too close, kings and pharaohs lived lonely lives. Consider what Pharaoh witnessed as he became acquainted with someone who walked with God.

• He met a man who was willing to tell the truth and put himself at risk when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.
• He met a man who came out of a prison environment with a gentle spirit.
• He met a man who had no trace of anger or revenge-seeking.
• He met a man who possessed wisdom so unique that his ideas could only be attributed to his God.
• He met a man who was not power hungry.

        All of Egypt was saved from famine because God brought Joseph to Egypt. His redemption from imprisonment to power saved more than just the Jewish people. So widespread was his influence that even Egypt was able to preserve its people through the drought.

         My redemption never stays in a closet. People close to me watch it unfold and God’s power is on full display. His glory falls on those intimate with me but also to my acquaintances. You and I become ‘fatherly’ or ‘motherly’ to those who’ve never trusted before, to those who have waited to see something beautiful displayed in a world that is savagely broken in two. When I give up on God before a stunning breakthrough, I deny myself, and everyone around me, from seeing God’s kingdom come to earth.

I wait on You, God. My hope is not in vain. Your glory, waiting to be revealed, is just out of sight. Give me spiritual grit to see this through. Amen

THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

            So it was not you who sent me here, but God. Genesis 45:8

         Really? Joseph believes that God sent him to Egypt? I thought it was the sins of his brothers that sent him there and God just made good out of it. No. Joseph dared to tell the ones who hurt him, “You didn’t do this to me, God did!”  Such is the stumbling block of God’s sovereignty.

         One of the most disturbing messages I heard when I was wrestling with the sovereignty of God was from John Piper.  He said, “Who crucified Jesus? God did!” Admittedly, it took a good year for me to make peace with a God who gives free will, knows ahead of time the choices of sinful humanity, and weaves a glorious plan of pain and redemption into the life of every child.

         But here’s the thing. If I’ve never trusted God with my story and pressed in close over time to see redemption, the truth of His sovereignty will be a stumbling block to me. This sad reality characterizes most of the church. We are deeply angry with God for what He did not prevent.

         Because His suffering had meaning, ours can too, when we realize that we can go through horrendous experiences with the same purpose He had, trusting and then magnifying the worth of the Father.  Christianity is a wildfire when spread by the hot winds of adversity.  I will miss it if I’m eaten away with the anger of injustice.

          Today, someone watches a loved one wither away with cancer.  The loss will either cripple them or cause them to more fully embrace the joy that life is eternal.  And today, a parent’s heart breaks over the path of a rebellious child.  They will be tempted to disown their own son or daughter or they will choose to explore the truth of their own past rebellion against God.  They will trace, once again, his never-ending supply of lovingkindess and tender mercy.

         With each cross comes a choice.  Meaningless suffering or the opportunity to find the heart and purposes of God in our tears.  Joseph discovered the latter. Oh, the sweetness when it’s framed in the comfort of God’s sovereignty and the power of His redemption.

There is not one thing I have experienced, or ever will experience, that can be called a meaningless tragedy.  Be lifted high over my life and as I look up, let others follow my lead and see Your glory.  Amen