Hi how are you all today? I am well and have just ended another busy week. We had the community Christmas carols on Saturday night and it was great. To look out and see kids enjoying themselves and families just taking a moment for some down time, and basking in the real wonder of Christmas. Most families that attended possibly don’t attend church on a regular basis so it was a great outreach.
This week I want to look at the lessons from Joseph. We can’t think about Joseph without considering the family tree that God weaved through the Old Testament. Those books are full of the stories of Joseph’s ancestors and those stories tell us much.
In Joseph’s line, there were barren woman, foreign women, prostitute women, liars, deceivers etc. But out of that sometimes mixed up family came the promise of God. This gives me comfort knowing that God still can deliver His promises over my life in the mixed up place I reside.
It tells me that it doesn’t matter what your family situation is or was like that God is looking for people that will believe in and trust Him.
When God calls us, He is not looking at our family dynamics nor who we were but is looking at who we will become.
Out of that mixed up family came our Saviour, the promise of God – Jesus. Jesus’ future was set- He was to become our sacrifice – our Passover lamb- the One who would take on the sins of the world and defeat Satan so that we would be free.
God wove the story of Jesus’ natural ancestors in a way that not one of us can be disqualified based on family ancestors. God is so good and so merciful to all of us.
The first mention of Joseph is as Mary’s betrothed or fiancee. They weren’t married yet. One day Mary told Joseph she needed to see him urgently.
He said he had time so Mary told him the story of how the angel visited her and told her that she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus, the saviour. She was now pregnant with Him.
I am sure that the story was so unbelievable to him that he thought Mary was lying. So rather than expose her he was just quietly going to walk away and cancel their engagement. The house he was building was now going to be put on hold for him and someone else to one day live in.
His heart was broken as he loved Mary but what else could he do? Mary went away to her cousins house.
Joseph went away downcast to his home. However, he wasn’t alone long when an angel came to visit him. The angel told him not to fear ; that Mary was telling the truth and he should still marry her. He was so happy, he rushed off to tell Mary before she could get too far down the road. They were both happy and made preparations to get married quietly.
What can this quick story about Joseph teach us? It teaches us that circumstances will come around our lives that make no sense and sometimes defy logic. But if we keep trusting God then He will be with us and show us the right way to go.
Sometimes we don’t understand what God is doing in our lives or our family’s lives but if we will continue to trust Him and be obedient God will lead us step by step.
Joseph needed this story of trust and obedience in God to be built now as later in his story, he was required to trust God more with the safety of his family and himself,
God will always lead us step by step from small trust and obey to huge trust and obey. But the principles will still be the same.
Today, what is God asking you to trust and obey Him in? Whatever it is, just do it.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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