Jesus Found In Egyptian Prison!

“I found Jesus! I found Him!” I told Wendel while I danced a little hip-hoppity jig around the kitchen.

He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. His expression said, “And…?”

“I found Him in the prison in Egypt!”

“What??” He asked. A look of confusion crossed his face.

“Jesus said that the entire Bible is written about Him. I was reading about Joseph, and asked the Lord to show me how Joe’s story was about Him. He did!” I said, and continued to dance.

I love to “dig for treasure” in the Word. The only treasure worth finding is Jesus, so that’s who I look for. I’ve found Him in many of the Old Testament stories. This delights me more than finding gold. Gold can be spent, and then will be gone. A Bible treasure is mine forever!

Chuck Missler first clued me into this, and I’m so thankful. One of the things he (and some others) said is that Joseph’s life was a “type” of Christ in over 100 ways. Not wanting to take their word for it, I got out my Bible and began to make my way through Joseph’s life. Here are a few things I saw as I studied:

Beloved son

Despised and rejected

Seamless robe

Homeless

Put in the ground and left for dead

Falsely accused

I worked through the details until I came to Joseph’s stay in prison. Two of his cell mates had dreams. One was the cupbearer and the other the baker. The next morning, Joseph noticed that they looked sad and asked, “What’s up?”

“We each had a strange dream last night. There’s no one to tell us what they mean.”

Joseph said, “Hey, God interprets dreams. Tell me what your dreams were. He’ll explain it to me so I can tell you.”

The cup bearer went first. His was a dream about  a grapevine, the fruit pressed and put into Pharaoh’s cup. After this, the cup bearer put the cup into Pharaoh’s hands.

Joseph gave the interpretation immediately: “Good news! In three days you go back to work.”

The baker stood by, and listened to the interaction. The interpretation given to the other fellow encouraged him to share his dream next.

His dream was about bread in a basket on his head for Pharaoh. Birds came and ate the bread out of the topmost basket.

With a grimace, Joe said, “Wow. Sucks to be you! In three days, you’ll be dead; afterward, the birds will eat the flesh off your bones.”

The interpretations were accurate, and all took place as Joseph had declared.

Here’s the thing. In this story we have three players: Joseph, the cup bearer, and the baker. Let’s look at the last two.

A cup bearer would taste food and drink given to Pharaoh to ensure that it was not poisoned. He served the ruler. We get a clue about what he gave to Pharaoh by his title: cup bearer. The beverage in the cup was most likely wine.

The baker – no brainer here – baked bread.

Hmm. Wine and bread…remind you of anything?

Here’s where it gets interesting.

The baker was killed…Jesus’ body was broken for us.

The cup bearer was reinstated…because He lives, we have eternal life.

Like I said, this kind of treasure doesn’t “spend,” but it sure warms my heart. The more I read the stories of the Bible in search of Jesus, the more  I realize the entire book is tightly woven. When I take into account the various writers, their professions, and the time span in which the Bible was written, I am in awe of the God of the Bible. Every detail bears significance and fits into the whole of the 40 books written by 66 authors over the span of a few thousand years.

The Bible itself is a miracle when viewed in this light!

Does this seem contrived to you? If a fore-shadow (type) of Jesus were found in only one story, perhaps I would agree; but try it for yourself. Choose any story from the Bible. Ask the Lord to show you what it tells about Jesus. Then wait, expecting to receive.

You never know where you’ll find Jesus!

Bitten In A Third-World Country

Blood ran down my leg as I struggled to get the dog to let go. He was medium-sized , scrawny, and mangy…and wouldn’t leave me alone.

It was my first trip to a foreign country on a mission trip. In this country, dogs are everywhere and more like rats than pets. They wandered around at the hospital where the medical team served, dug through the trash, wandered in and out of patient rooms, and watched for scraps of food to eat. They weren’t aggressive, so the one attached to my leg was unusual.

Prior to our departure from the US, the leader of our group, Suzie Smith, recommended that we memorize Psalm 91. This was the chapter the Lord gave to them when they began Global Passion Ministries in the 90s. I figured they knew a little more about the mission field than I did, so I followed her advice. I was thankful that I had.

After a few minutes’ fight with the animal I managed to chase him off. I looked over the open wounds on the back of my calf and wondered what to do.

We had come to this town to repair cleft lips, remove tonsils, and perform minor surgeries for the locals. In other words, I was with a host of medical professionals. If I told them about the dog bite, all attention would turn to me. It would be a huge diversion from what we were there to do. The focus would be on getting rabies vaccine shipped, and taking care of me.

What to do?

The Scripture I’d memorized came to mind; specifically this part:

 “Because you have made the Lord, even the Most High, who is my refuge, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.”

Psalm 91:9, 10

“Okay, Lord,” I said, “I get what You mean. The chapter begins with, ‘He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High…’. I am abiding in You. What plague could exist in You? Either Your Word – all of it – is true or You have lied to us. I believe You are Truth. Here’s my chance to walk in light of that truth.”

I returned to my room and cleaned up my leg with soap and water. I told no one.

Although the wounds were deep, they didn’t even turn pink from the barest hint of infection.

After we got home, I told Suzie about the dog bite. She immediately scolded me for my silence.

I responded, “You and I both know that all focus would have snapped to me. We weren’t there for me.”

“True. We’d have called home, bought the meds and had them flown here. One of the Customs guys probably would have kept it. That would have been a huge distraction. I’m glad you didn’t say anything…but don’t do that again!”

On the flight home, I read through Psalm 91, then closed my Bible and said, “Father, thanks for showing me that Your Word works when I’m in a third-world country. The next time I come, I’ll be sure to trust what You have said.”

He replied, “Oh, you don’t think you need My Word at home?”

Yikes! I certainly didn’t want to be tried in this way again!

This event served to strengthen my faith in the Bible…to live as if it is really trustworthy. As a result, my walk with God – and especially the way I pray – was changed forever. I no longer beg and plead for God to do something He said He would do, but instead thank Him for His faithfulness in the matter.

“Has He not said, and will He not do it?”

Lions Eat Christians? What?

Christians being eaten by lions? Now what’s wrong with that picture? I wondered.

Most have seen movies that include scenes with a Roman Colosseum. People are pitted against people, or against beasts. One of their favorites was feeding Christians to the lions.

Wait just a minute! From a Biblical perspective this is all wrong. Jesus (the Lion of the Tribe of Judah) doesn’t eat Christians. He loves and cares for them.

In an instant, a whole new understanding of prayer came into view.

No doubt, you’re familiar with the Armor of God: the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Helmet of Salvation, Shoes that are the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace, the Shield of Faith, and the Sword of the Spirit…and an oft left-out piece: Prayer.

Let’s consider the shield for a bit. In the days of the Roman Empire, the one used was roughly 2 1/2 feet by 4 feet…big enough to shield the entire body. When a group of soldiers stood side-by-side, their shields formed an impenetrable wall.

Place them in a circle, and what do you have? A Colosseum!

For you see, when we join in prayer, we have effectively encircled our enemy. The Lion (always victorious) can then take him out.

Like I said, this is completely backward to the Roman Colosseum.

There are a few times in the Bible when the Lord says, “I looked for a man to stand in the gap, but could find no one.” The verse takes on a different meaning when seen in this light, doesn’t it?

This causes me to wonder how many times total victory was thwarted, the enemy allowed to escape, because I failed to heed the call to prayer. Hmm, mmm.

It came as no big surprise that Satan took one of God’s spiritual truths and turned it into a grisly game for entertaining the masses. After all, he’s twisted every other thing God designed for our good and His glory.

For instance, God invited His people to several week-long parties to celebrate their relationship with Him in song, dance, and pot-lucks. Today we have concerts where people gather for the sake of worshiping other people, sing songs that tear them down, and dance seductively. Some parties last all weekend – sometimes turning into orgies.

God invites us to be filled with His Spirit, Satan invites people to be filled with alcohol or drugs so that He can fill them and control them.

God designed marriage to illustrate His faithfulness to us, Satan destroys marriages, and many people in the process.

God uses stories to teach us about Himself. Hollywood uses stories to teach us about evil and vile things.

God wrote a Book, so did Satan.

God calls for gatherings for the sake of worship, so does Satan.

God instituted a system of animal sacrifice to atone for sin until Jesus gave the final sacrifice. Now, no more bloodshed is required. Satan still demands sacrifices – not of animals only, but of humans as well.

I could give many more examples, but you get the idea. Anytime we see perversity, we see a twisting of a spiritual truth.

…like Christians, who were eaten by the lions in the Colosseums of old.

 

Want more on our armor? Check out Is Your Skirt Flapping in the Breeze?

Working Around My Log

The Lord is very creative when it comes to revealing what’s in our hearts. He is gentle, and has a sense of humor as He helps us see what’s hidden so well that we can not see it for ourselves.

This is one method He uses with me:

Beating, ever beating

while

Picking, ever picking

at the splinters I see in others’ eyes.

When I do

I knock them senseless,

leave them bleeding –

Their specks but fragments

of my offending plank.

I am no poet. I realize this. Cheryl from Burning Fire Shut Up in My Bones posted her 33 word confession in response to a contest. It challenged me, and this is what came to mind!

****

I love watching dramatizations of Scripture. They helps me to see a book as one continuous story, instead of lifting a verse off the page here or there, as we are used to doing. Once such movie is Matthew. It is the entire book (NIV) in living color. Bruce Marchiano has the role of Jesus and portrays our Lord in a way I’d never imagined He could be.

The above poem is inspired by Bruce’s portrayal of the plank/speck section of the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 7:1-5. As Bruce presented this teaching, he held a log in his hands and talked about the plank we have in our eye. The scene made me laugh…then made me realize how silly we are when we try to help someone remove a splinter from their eye; and club them to pieces with the beam that protrudes from our own. See it for yourself (they show the scene I’m talking about at 44 seconds):

 

The first time I saw this, I realized that the splinter and the plank are made of the same material. What I see in them is a tiny bit of what is a big fault in me.

Now, knowing what I need to confess is as easy as looking at that for which I’ve criticized others. If I’m willing to be honest, I usually discover their sin lurking within my heart – even if my actions don’t yet reflect my thoughts. The negativity (i.e.) that I spot in others bugs me because, deep down, I know I am guilty of this myself. The Lord uses the “gift” of “sin-sniffing” to show me something He wants me to admit to – and surrender to Him.

Become a “Christian scientist,” take this to the “lab” and test my theory. The next time there’s an opportunity to criticize someone, stop and ask the Lord, “Is this something I’m doing as well?” Dare to lay your heart open before Him.

Like me, your question, “Am I…”  will probably, in time, be exchanged for this request: “Okay, Lord, show me where I am guilty of this same sin!”

Two things will happen: you’ll become a cleaner vessel; and you will be able to remove others’ splinters…

…now that you’re not workin’ around your log!

\ 🙂 /

Soli Deo Gloria!

No Absolutes? Are You Absolutely Sure?

How do we determine what is “good,” and what is “evil?” Personally, I tend to consider those things which are pleasant to me, make me feel good, or add to my pile of possessions as “good.” Conversely, I consider those things which hurt, cause me grief, or deplete my store of stuff as “evil.” It’s pretty subjective, when I look at it in this light.

It works for me.

When I am deciding what is good and evil, that makes me the judge. That makes me god.

What happens though, when what I judge to be good or evil clashes with what my neighbor judges to be good or evil? I like T-Birds. You own one and I don’t. I decide that I want to have a T-Bird, so I take yours. Are you going to see it from my point of view and agree that it is good for me to have your car and let me drive off with it? I don’t think so.

We’ve arrived at the place in history where many people believe they are entitled to their own “reality.” They will say, “What’s true for you is not what’s true for me, and what’s true for me may not be what’s true for you.” They believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth.

Really?

Let’s carry that out to its logical conclusion.

If I’m entitled to my own reality, then in my mind, you should not exist. Prepare to die because I’m going to shoot you.

“You can’t do that?”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s wrong.”

“Who says?”

“I do.”

“Well, that’s your reality. My reality is that you should be dead.”

Without a standard by which everyone agrees to abide, we’re in for some serious trouble. Watch tonight’s news and you’ll see what I mean.

If only one person on the planet decided they were going to live according to their own reality, it would be a problem for the few around him or her. Unfortunately, we have an increasing percent of the population who are beginning to adopt this kind of thinking. As a result we see a sharp rise in murder, rape, war, slavery, theft, abuse of every sort.

On what grounds can anyone be convicted of a crime if there are no absolutes? Is that what we really want?

Long ago, we were given a Book that contains absolutes. We call them the Ten Commandments. How different our world would be if everyone actually lived by them.

…Just sayin’ !

Da Jesus Book

God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world, dat He wen send Me, His one an ony Boy,

so dat everybody dat trus Me no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva.

John 3:16

Awesome in any language!

This is a quote from Da Jesus Book – a Hawaii Pidgin translation of the Bible, prepared by the Wycliffe Translators in 2000.

Help for the Hurting

Life is often hard to handle. Pain is inevitable. When you’re up to your eyes in a struggle, what do you do? What can you do?

Many years ago I had kids who needed a godly man to come alongside them – take my boys under their wings and show them what Christianity-in-action looked like. I approached several men in my church and asked for their help. To a man, every one said, “I’ll pray about it.” That was the end of the conversation.

Years passed, and there was no one to help. I cried out to the Lord and asked Him to send someone to speak life into my sons. The ceiling seemed to be solid steel, my prayers going nowhere.

This seemed to be a repeat of what I’d experienced myself since childhood. Christian folks knew there were problems, knew I needed someone to show me the way. Time and time again I was advised, “Pray about it. Give it to God.” or my personal favorite, “Read your Bible more.”

This goes back to the post I wrote on Standardized Christianity. We seem to think, “What I believe about God is what everyone else believes.” Wrong!  Each person is a unique individual, and at a different place in their understanding of God and the Bible. Life experiences and role models affect how we perceive Biblical truths. Further, a young (in their faith) believer hasn’t learned how to find what they need from their Bible.

As a teen, I read my Bible every day – all the way through two or three times per year. Even though I went to Sunday School, Sunday service, Sunday night service, a Tuesday morning prayer breakfast, the Wednesday night prayer meeting, and a Thursday night Word of Life Club, I had no one in my immediate circle of acquaintances to help me sort it all out. I knew the Word, but did not know the God of the Word. There is a very big difference between the two.

Lacking understanding, I thought God was like my earthly father. Because I believed this, I read the Scriptures through the lens of “God is like my dad.” You’d be shocked if I shared some of the conclusions I arrived at due to my erroneous concepts.

When I spoke with one of my leaders about the problems I was having at home, they gave me the advice I stated above. In recent years, I’ve come to understand that what they said was shorthand for, “You’re a mess. I don’t want to get involved. Go away.”

**********

In February of this year, I went to Nicaragua with a medical team. It was a wonder-filled trip (as usual). The surgeons who accompany us repair cleft lips – a very big deal there. Countless people were served medically. Lives were radically changed (a person with a cleft lip is outcast and abused by nearly everyone).

The Sunday we were leaving, we attended the worship service at Verbo . The faces of some of the children who’d received treatment came to mind. I began to ask the Lord,

Why this child and not that one. Why him, her…and not him, or him, or her? I know that You are good, I’m not questioning that. I just want to understand how you choose who will be reached and who will not.

I sensed the Lord say, “Dig deeper.”

Why do you reach out to the kids who live in the orphanage, and give them people who can teach them about Your love, yet my prayers for my own children went unanswered? They desperately needed a mentor. Again, Lord, I know that You are good and that You will bring good out of this. I just want to understand.

“Deeper.”

I began to weep, then sob uncontrollably.

Why not ME? You knew that I wanted to love You and serve You with all my heart. You knew that I believed terrible things about You – believed that You were cruel, uncaring, unloving, and unpredictable. If You had given me someone to teach me what You were really like, I would have represented You better and never walked away from You.  You’ve brought so much that is truly good from all I’ve been through, but I don’t understand why I had to wait so long. I trust You. I know You are for me, and not against me. I just want to know why You chose this way.

My question hung heavy in the air as I left the church, and loaded my belongings into the back of the pickup so we could leave for home.

On the way to the airport, raindrops began to fall. At first there were just a few. All at once, torrents of water were pouring out of the sky. We could barely see the road before us.

The Lord spoke:

Tami, I am Spirit and cannot be physically present with every person. This is why I sent my Spirit to live in my children. They are my representatives. When they allow my Spirit to work through them, I can minister to people “with skin on.” I have empowered my children to bring life, love and comfort to those around them.  My desire is for them to strengthen one another, to build one another up, to be there when they need help. The problem is that I ask them to get involved and they either do not hear My request – or they ignore Me altogether.

Drawing my eyes to the cascading rain all around us, He said:

These are my tears for the lost, the hurting, the abused, the unloved. I care far more than You will ever know. 

Wow.

Whenever I have asked God “Why?” – not as in “How dare You?” – but because I don’t understand Him, He graciously responds. His desire is that we come to know Him better, that we see His heart, and that we know truth. He doesn’t hold out on us. He is indeed for us, not against us.

God’s revelation that Sunday healed some very deep places in my heart – things that stood between the two of us for decades.

If you are in a tough spot, keep asking God for His truth, keep seeking out godly people, keep knocking on others’ hearts until someone answers. Don’t give up hope, and please don’t walk away believing the lie that God does not care. The tears God showed me in Nicaragua were for you, too. He loves you with an everlasting love.

Dearest Abba, There are so many hurting people around us. Please give us Your heart for them. Help us to set aside our personal agendas, roll up our sleeves, and wade into the muck and mire that is the life of humanity. Teach us how to be You with skin on; how to love, nurture, support, and patiently minister to those in need. Help us to hear Your voice whenever You are inviting us to join You in the work You are doing, and to surrender our lives to You – whatever the cost. This is our desperate hour, and You are needed more than ever. Give us the courage to be Your ambassadors – to do what You would do if You were here in human form.

Because this is Your will for us, I can confidently ask this…

…in Jesus’ name.

Amen! 

NOTE: This post by J. S. Park was my inspiration for today’s message: http://jsparkblog.com/2013/05/07/question-im-struggling-but-church-keeps-saying-just-read-your-bible/