“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord ponders the heart.”
Human beings have a difficult time telling themselves the truth about themselves. It is very difficult for us to admit that we were wrong about something, or that what we did was wrong. We have a tendency to justify ourselves, even though if someone else did the same thing, we would think it was awful. This is why Jesus told us not to be judgmental towards other people. That’s not to say that we cannot try to help someone correct bad behavior, but that we cannot make a moral judgment about them. When I’m preaching, I always remember that I have three fingers and a thumb pointing back at myself. I want to consider some points in reference to this text. We should be real careful to weigh our own behavior and realize when we are doing wrong. People have been heard to say that they knew what they did was wrong, but they try to excuse the behavior because of circumstances. There are not many people who will say that they believe in selective morality until the finger of guilt is pointing at them. For example, the Ten Commandments are not circumstantial. It would not be excusable to say that one committed adultery because he or she was not happy at home. Oh, we hear it all of the time, but it is not an excuse. That’s why the proverb says, “but the Lord pondereth the heart.” If God calls something a sin every time it is mentioned in the Bible we might surmise that we cannot come up with any excuse to allow ourselves to do it. When we do wrong when we know that what we did was wrong, we are ignoring that God will not be pleased with it. We should be careful to think seriously about what the consequences of our actions will be. This is illustrated for us in Exodus 32 when the Israelites had Aaron build them a golden calf to worship. What was their excuse for this behavior? Here is the answer in Exodus 32:1: “And then the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.” Think about it: The Ten Commandments had been given in Exodus 20. The first commandment was: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That wasn’t a suggestion. The Israelites felt right in their own eyes because they hadn’t seen Moses for forty days. Then there is Aaron’s excuse. When Moses asked him what happened, he more or less blamed the Israelites for his bad decision: “And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.” (Exodus 32:22) He went on to say that because of them he took their gold, “cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” We need to know that God knows everything that we think or do. We cannot hide anything from Him, and we need to take His knowledge of us into account when we are tempted to do things that are wrong and try to find excuses for ourselves. We need to remember that we are accountable to God for what we do. Our text said that “God pondereth the heart.” I think that when we are about to do wrong, God knows what is in our hearts and begins to convict us about it. But the tendency that we have to excuse our own behavior is strong. We need to be aware of the moving of the Holy Spirit in these times, for He is surely convicting us in spite of our tendency to excuse ourselves. Hey, I’m not pointing a finger at you without pointing a finger at myself. I have to watch this tendency just like you do. When we stand before God in judgment, we will be without excuse, and God will not say: “You are excused because of circumstances.” Let’s we aware of the fact that God is, indeed, pondering our hearts. Bro. Joe
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"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (NIV)
Christians are often reminded of the need to be humble, but we are also reminded that we have a special calling from God to be His people to the world. We are all that the text says, not to boast about our position in Christ, but to be His witnesses in the world. The text declares that we are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God." That is heady stuff, isn't it? But the very last lines in this verse tells us why we are all of this. It is certainly not to give us bragging rights, but "to declare the praises of Him Who called (us) out of darkness into His marvelous light." First, we are told what to share with people. We are to share "the praises of Him..." We have many reasons to praise God. We have been called out of a life of sin and degradation to a life of joy and satisfaction in Christ. We need to share this verbally, but we also need to declare it with the way we live our lives and in the way that we treat people. We have the promise of eternity with God in heaven. That is something that a lot of people do not think about, because they are so busy with life, making a living, etc. But we need to call their attention to the fact that there is a life beyond this one and that it is all-important for them to receive Christ as their Savior. I know that sounds quaint today, and is the source of a lot of jokes, but it is, nevertheless, true. Second, we are told why we should declare His praises. It is because we have been called out of darkness into light. I consider myself a positive person, but as I look around me, I see a lot of darkness. I see the possibility of darkness in my own life. Satan always calls us back to the earthly pleasures of sin, and we have to be on guard. I see the darkness of the world all around me in the newspaper, on television, etc. I do not wish to join that darkness. I remember living in a dark world and it was not satisfying. But we are not called to shun this dark world but to encounter it with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember we are declaring that we have been called out of darkness into light. We should not be self-righteous about it, because that would be counter-productive. But it is true, nevertheless, and we are to declare it humbly, being thankful that we are living in the light of Christ, and that we have the opportunity to share His light with the world. Bro. Joe “Then came Peter to (Jesus) and said, Lord how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? 22. Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.”
Some of my great moments of truth come to me in the morning when I am shaving and looking at myself in the mirror. When one comes face-to-face with oneself, he just has to face the truth. This happened this morning as I was shaving, for I said to myself: “Get over it.” God did not reveal to me what I specifically needed to get over, but He knows what is in my heart, mind and soul. This put me in theologically-philosophical frame of mind (That’s deep. lol), and I felt a blog coming on. Whatever, or whoever, it is that is stuck in our sub-conscious, or conscious minds, we need to get over it. That is basically what Jesus was telling Peter in Matthew 18:22. Peter thought that forgiving seven times was a gracious plenty, but Jesus told him differently. (Don’t start doing multiplication here, for what Jesus meant was that we are to just keep on forgiving – period.) Why do we need to “get over it”? First, if something is eating away at us, it is not hurting the person who caused the “eating,” it is hurting us. We need to get the grudge out of our systems. Years ago, I read about a fish that is called the “hog fish” – at least I think that is what it was called. This fish attaches itself to a larger fish and begins to eat the fish from the inside. That is sort of like what happens when we fail to forgive and move on with our lives. We will not move on, or grow in Christ, until we just get over whatever it was that has eaten at us. We will just be eaten away a bit at a time. Second, we need to think about the times that we have hurt other people. I don’t think that it ever occurs to us that we might be the cause of someone’s hurt or grudge. There are people who need to forgive us for the wrong that we have done to them. When we look at it this way, it should make it easier for us to forgive those who have hurt us. Perhaps we need to forgive ourselves for wrongs that we have done others. Third, we need to forgive others because we have been forgiven by Jesus. Ephesians 3:31-32 gives us this advice: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be you kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” The fact that we have been forgiven so much by Jesus should be an incentive for us to forgive others. Fourth, we need to forgive others, because God expects it of us. In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:12), Jesus said that we should pray to be forgiven our “debts, even as we forgive our debtors.” In verses 14-15 Jesus went on to say: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Now this should really give us even greater incentive to forgive others. This doesn’t mean that you will be eternally lost, but it does mean that your Christian growth will be at a standstill until you find it in your heart to forgive others. Let me put it this way: God is serious about this matter of forgiveness. We seem to think that our failure to forgive is not very important, but according to Jesus it is very important. No one knows better than you what you need to “get over.” Today would be a good day. Bro. Joe "The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their trouble. 18. The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.”
As I read these verses I became keenly aware that there are many advantages to being a child of God. In verses 17 and 19, David refers to “the righteous.” This is not referring to people who are perfect, or who are legalistic and mean-spirited. (One thinks of the Pharisees here.) “The righteous” are not so religious that they are above getting their hands dirty in their service for the Lord. In fact, they are not “religious” at all; they are dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ, not a religion. Looking at this text from the standpoint of the New Testament, “the righteous” are people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, are living for Him and it shows in their lives. The promise in this text is that the Lord should be the basis of our security and hope. Initially, I need to point out that Christians are not promised that everything will always go their way. In verse 17, David mentions that God delivers His people from trouble. This means, of course, that like all other human beings, God’s people will have troubles. In verse 19, David wrote: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” When you read the Bible, you become aware that even the great men of God, like Moses, David and Daniel, had to go through some hardships, struggles and afflictions. It concerns me that many people want to walk away from their commitment to God when they encounter troubles, as though God has broken some promise to them that they would never have to endure sorrows and troubles. That is definitely not a biblical promise. What then are the advantages of being a child of God? In verses 17 and 19 David wrote about the deliverance of God. Though we go through trials and troubles, dark days and troublesome times, God is aware of what is going on in our lives and is set to deliver us from them. We do not have to read self-help books, or go running to the world’s counselors to help us get through hard times, because we have the Lord, who has promised to deliver us. Please consider that whatever dark moment you might be experiencing right now, God is already at work on your deliverance. When you have learned what you need to learn, and have grown sufficiently in your dependence on His grace, God is ready to deliver you just as He delivered people in the Bible. In my mind, verse 18 has the promise that we need to hold tenaciously to when we encounter hardships and troubles: “The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken spirit and contrite heart.” The promise is that God is near us when we belong to Him. In Psalm 23:4 David wrote: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” David did not blame God that he had to walk through “the valley of the shadow of death;” rather he praised God that He did not abandon him while he went through it. The same is true for you, for God has not changed. He is still near us. When our spirits are broken, instead of pouting and complaining, we need to be “contrite in heart” and realize that we are dependent on God. David wrote in Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” This does not mean that we should be depressed all of the time. It does mean that we are to remember that God is near us and will deliver us from, or through, whatever it is we have to endure. Whatever you are dealing with in your life right now, remember the promise of God and go to Him, totally depending on Him to deliver you. I should emphasize that the great men and women of God in the Bible were made stronger in their faith, and in their love for God through their struggles and troubles! Bro. Joe “Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. 17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.
The third chapter of Daniel reveals a trying time for God’s exiled people. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, declared that all people would worship an image of gold that he had set up. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego refused to bow to this golden image, and were placed into the firey furnace, and eventually were delivered from the furnace. They dared to stand for God instead of bending to idolatry, which would break the first two of the Ten Commandments. We can learn from faith and courage, and why they were true to God. Their courage was due to their devotion to God. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were men of God, and were devoted to God alone. They absolutely could not bow to the golden image. The favor of God meant more to them than even the favor of the great king Nebuchadnezzar. Are you devoted to Jesus alone, or do you bow to the “false gods” of our age? Do you bow to greed or popularity instead of standing for the Lord? Do you seek the smile of God or the smile of the world? I pray that my devotion to God will be of this kind. Their courage was due to their obedience to God. The three great Hebrew men obeyed God rather than people. They obeyed the truth of God that they knew in their hearts instead of the falsehood that the world tried to foist on them. They took a step of faith instead of a step of fear. Do you obey God or people? Do you obey what the Bible teaches or what the world tells you is truth? The time in which we live sometimes demands that we obey God. But God has not changed, for He wants our obedience today as He did in the Hebrew children’s day. We need to learn what the apostles knew in Acts 5:29: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Their courage was due to their consistent faith in God. In other words, they were not “fair-weather friends” of God. They were consistent in their stand. There were no circumstances that would make them bow down to a false image. They had the faith and courage to say “no” to that with which they could not agree. They had the courage to say,“We will not serve your gods.” We need to be consistent as well. We shouldn’t let anything turn us from following Jesus. I have seen some people capitulate even when there was no fear of death. We will see a great difference in our lives, our homes and our churches when we stand for the Lord in the courage of consistency. For example, we will say “no” to the devil when he tries to get us to bow down to hurt feelings, or when he tries to get us into some disagreement with fellow Christians. We will say “no” to those who tell us the tolerance of sin is the supreme Christian virtue in the face of all sorts of ungodliness. We will say “no” to greed, pride, and lust when they try to steer us off course. We will have the courage to be consistent when the world demands inconsistency of us. When Paul feared that Timothy might waver in his faith and courage, he reminded him:" (For) God did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (NIV) Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego practiced this spirit in this text. The day in which we live calls for us to have the faith and courage to stand for the Lord. Bro. Joe “In the beginning God....."
From the very first words in the Bible God is an undeniable fact. The Bible doesn’t try to explain God to us, but it tells us that there is a God and He is our creator. How should we relate to this all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-seeing God? Surely, He is too far above us for us to relate to Him. Well, the Bible goes on to tell us that He wants to relate to us and us to Him. I think that the Bible gives us some specific ways that we can relate to God as we know Him in Jesus. Matthew 22:37-38: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38. This is the first and great commandment.” This is Jesus’ answer to the lawyer who wanted to know what the greatest commandment was. Jesus said that we are to love God with our total being. According to 1 John 4:9: “We love (God) because He first loved us.” Our love for God is borne of our knowledge that He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to save us. We need to constantly ask ourselves whether or not we really love God. Do we really love and appreciate Him, or do we just say that we love Him because that just seems the proper thing to do? What would you be willing to sacrifice because of your love for God? Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” We can look at this in two ways: (1) We can be afraid of Him because of His immense power. (2) We can hold Him in deep reverence and awe for the great God that He is and for all that He has done for us. Both of these are applicable, but neither of them stands alone. It is not enough to just be scared of God. We who believe in Him through Jesus should hold Him in such reverence and awe that we would not disobey Him or demean Him. We know that even when He disciplines us He does it because He loves us. Paul gave the reason for moral laxity in His day, and it applies to our day as well in Romans 3:18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Don’t be one of them! Psalm 100:2a: “Serve the Lord with gladness…” How do we show our love and reverential awe for God? We do it by serving Him. Serving God can mean any number of things, in fact there is no end to all that it can mean. It can mean we have to leave everything behind and go somewhere else in the world, or it can mean to simply do acts of kindness in the name of Jesus to people who need that kindness. Serving the Lord is not complicated. We do not have to have special training to do it. One thing is to just do what we know Jesus would do. There are areas of service that need special training, but that should not keep us from serving God daily. Every Christian is a servant of God; therefore, you are a servant of God. Seek ways to serve the Lord in our daily life and through your church. You can find ample ways to serve Him. . Of course, there are other elements that we could discuss about how we are to relate to God, but these three things, love, fear and service, are things that the Bible clearly tells us are of utmost importance in our lives. Therefore make up your mind and heart that you will love, fear and serve the Lord. Bro. Joe “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
When we see people deep in thought, we sometimes say to them, “a penny for your thoughts.” This means that we would like to know what they are thinking. What if you took somebody up on that and took a penny for your thoughts? Would your thoughts be worth a penny? Our lives are built around what we think about, and what we think about as a general rule will decide our actions. Paul had some good advice for Thessalonian Christians. He gave a list of important things that should occupy our minds. First, he wrote that if something is true we should think about it, wrap our minds around it. Conversely if something is false, we need to erase it from our minds. Lies get spread around, even in the Christian community, when we are not careful to weigh the truth of what we are talking and thinking about. Second, we need to think about the things that are honest. Honesty and truth are twins. We all like to think that our thoughts are mainly honest. Are we being honest when we think about, for example how to cut corners on our taxes? Third, he wrote that we are to think about justice. To think about justice is to think about being fair with people. This goes into how we treat people. Is it just to “give a piece of our mind” to, for example, a cashier in the grocery store? Do we go out of our way to be obnoxious because we know that we can get by with it? However, our Christian witness doesn’t “get by with it.” Fourth, we are to think about things that are pure. If we are honest with ourselves, we will have to confess that a lot of impure thoughts can go through our minds in a day’s time. There are many opportunities to think impure thoughts today. We get hit from every side with pictures that would lead our minds to impure thoughts if we were not careful. Fifth, he wrote that we should think about things that are lovely, and of a good report. There are a lot ugly things out there today that seek to bring our minds into obedience to them. If something is lovely, think about it. I have put “lovely” and “good report” together. Isn’t this what gossip is: taking that which is ugly and reporting on it? Has anyone ever called you to say, “I saw john Doe do a good thing today"? Someone might make a call like this, but for the most part we miss the good report. People do not generally run to their phones and call people about the lovely things that they see. An evil report seems to dominate our media. Just take a quick look at the headlines on magazine covers. Most of the time they are ugly and will get someone in trouble. If something is virtuous or praiseworthy, we need to highlight that and report it to the people. I know that all things can’t meet the test of the virtues of this passage. There will be negative things. When this is true, we need to contact the people involved and speak with them, not everybody but them. Another good idea is to keep those thoughts to ourselves – in other words, keep our mouths shut, our pens still, and our telephones on the hook. A penny for your thoughts! Bro. Joe "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
Is there any Christian, or anyone with common sense, who would say that the foundations of our society are not being destroyed? This is not a political statement, but a moral statement. For example, I just heard on TV that the ACLU is still trying to keep prayer out of all of the Armed Services, and that they are making headway on it. Who would have predicted that we would come to this place? It started in 1963 when prayer was banned in schools. (Actually, you can't ban prayer, because we can pray anytime we want to - just not always in public.) Public prayer in our society has almost become a thing of the past. Then look at the decline of moral values in our society. We have never been a perfect society. There has been sin in the world since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. In history, we read about societies that sunk to great moral lows, and literally destroyed themselves. (The Roman Empire comes to mind.) The argument is not that there has never been a decline in morality, but that we have not learned from history. We see advertisements on TV that would have been pornography a few years ago. The same could be said of scenes on some TV programs and in movies. It is almost as if all hell has broken loose. Satan has to be pleased. If you are reading this, you probably agree with me. If you don't -- WAKE UP! But there is an answer to the question: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The answer is in the ensuing verses in the eleventh Psalm: Vs. 4 "The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord is on His heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; His eyes examines them." There is more, but this verse will suffice to prove my point. "What can the righteous do?" First, they can remember that there is a God in heaven, and all of the atheists in the world cannot kill Him - no matter how hard they try. Second, they can remember that this God is not unaware of what is going on in the world. We are reminded that "He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them." Third, they can put their faith in the Lord and He will save them, and deliver them from "this present evil age." Fourth, they can remember that the Lord will finally judge all of the activities of people in the world. God is not blind. He is not deaf and He is not dead. What the righteous can do is depend on God, and know that it will all end like He wants it to. They can also live in God's will, witness to the world about His saving power and set an example of love and joy. Bro, Joe "For as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every man that believes; to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
We do not normally think of ourselves as powerful people. I do not think of myself, sitting in my easy chair in my little "bungalow" behind Jeff and Hope's pool, to be an especially powerful person. According to the Bible, however, I am powerful because I am a believer in Jesus Christ. You have the same power as a believer in Jesus Christ. Because of this power, Paul was "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Christ has given you the same power of the Holy Spirit. What does this power mean for our lives as believers in Jesus Christ? We have been given the power to overcome the difficulties of life. There is no person who does not face difficulties of some in kind in his, or her, life. You might be facing a difficulty at this present moment that you do not feel that you can overcome. You have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome that difficulty. Remember that the difficulty is not greater than the One who died on the cross to save you, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father, and sent the power of His Sprit into your life. Claim Christ's power over the difficulty. (Well, do it!) We have been given the power to love people who are difficult to love. (At this point I said "Oh Me!") If you claim that you never encounter people who are difficult to love, you are either not telling the truth, or you live in a cave by yourself. I spent over fifty years serving Baptist churches, and I constantly met people who were difficult to love. (In fact, when I think about it, I was sometimes that person who was difficult to love. And some of you who know me well, said "amen.") Christ has given you spiritual power to overcome that difficulty. We have been given the power to witness to people about their need for the salvation that Jesus offers. You might think that some people are too much smarter than you to listen to your witness. We need to remember that no one is smarter than the Holy Spirit, and if He prods us to witness to that smart person, He knows that we can do it, and that they need it! You can believe that I know about that feeling of intimidation, and how difficult it is to overcome. We just need to remember that we are witnessing with the power of the risen Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. If we will think of it this way, we, like Paul, can witness to people to whom the Spirit urges us to witness. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the power to do whatever it is that He wants you to do. Do not be ashamed of that power; rather, humbly accept the power that He offers you. Selah Bro. Joe “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all the places whither thou goest (where you go).”
Jacob is a good example of God’s grace in the lives of people. As you probably know, he cheated his brother Esau out of the family birthright. He and his mother, Rebecca cheated Esau out of the father’s blessing that usually went to the elder brother. Because Esau was understandably angry with Jacob, his mother sent him to Haran to her brother Laban’s home. It was while Jacob was en route to Haran that the event recorded in our text occurred. It is a promise to Jacob, who didn’t deserve it any more than we do, but he got it anyway. It is a promise that is universally given in the Bible and can certainly be applied to our lives. God promised Jacob that He would be with him in his journey. Throughout the Bible, God promises His presence with His people. Jesus dealt with this when He knew that He was about to ascend to the Father. In the gospel of John, He promised His disciples, and subsequently us, that He would not leave them alone. It was at that time that He promised that “the Comforter” or the Holy Spirit would come to them and be in them. John 16:13-14 is one example of this promise: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. 14. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus has promised to be with us in our journey as well. In Matthew 28:20b the last thing that Jesus said, at least in this gospel, was “lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” God promised that He would “keep” Jacob in his journey. Remember, Jacob was on the run from Esau, and that could have been a worry of his. People on journeys in those days had to worry about thieves. It was common for lone travelers to be waylaid on the road. In other words, God would not only be with Jacob on his journey, but He would be there in power. This is a promise that Jesus has given to us. In Jacob’s case, God’s power would apply to the completion of his journey. We are given a similar promise in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The Lord will keep us in His power, and will give us His power for our Christian journey as well. It is a great cause of rejoicing that the Eternal God of the universe has promised to keep us in His power on our journey. God promised that He would be present with and keep Jacob “in all the places whither thou goest.” God offered His presence and power to Jacob because He had a plan for Jacob’s life. This plan unfolds in the remainder of the book of Genesis. Just as God had a plan for Jacob’s life, He has a plan for our lives, and He has promised to be with us and to keep us in our journey as well as we carry out His plan for our lives. If you know anything about this period in Jacob’s life, it was not tied up all neatLY and pretty, because Jacob being Jacob, there were some detours and problems, but God’s plan for Jacob’s life came to fruition. You might not think that God has a plan for your life, but He does. As you follow His plan, you will still be a human being with all of the failures and foibles that this entails, but God’s promise is that He will be with you “whither thou goest.” I have seen this play out in my life and know that in spite of all my failures and foibles, God has been with me “whither” I have gone. Take Jacob’s promise for yourself!!!! Bro. Joe |
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