Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Joseph

I just want to write something real quick like before last Sunday becomes too distantly removed from my memory.

I want to be like Joseph.

I don't long to wear a varicolored tunic. And I don't want to be hated by, betrayed by, and sold into slavery by my own brothers. I don't want to live in a foreign land separated from my father. I don't want to be wrongly accused of a violent crime or imprisoned.

But I want to be as quick to forgive people who don't deserve it and quicker to see God's sovereignty in my life.

"I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?"

Those would not be the words that I would choose to reveal my identity to the ones responsible for my suffering of 22 years.

But then he goes on.

"And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve...to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God."

I need to forgive. Really forgive. And let grudges go. Forever. I need to acknowledge the sovereignty of God, not just when it suits me.

Thank you, Pastor Larry, for the excellent plagiarized sermon. And thank you, Dr. David Jeremiah, for being the source he ripped off.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It began on August 23, 1989 when a border guard misinterpreted his orders and let people pass between the Hungry-Austrian borders. Word of this spread quickly and there were soon protests all across the Soviet Bloc. It was November 9, 1989 that the East German government officially allowed East Germans to pass into West Germany unopposed.

Thank you for reminding me it was this month. I am glad to know someone who can remember this far in the past. I was only 5 at the time.

~Loven

kw said...

Janelle, you need to write a book...

JJ said...

Thanks, K, but mostly I just plagiarize. =)