“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.”
Proverbs 14:4
“Today I bought the most rocking pair of shoes I have possibly ever owned. I may even love them too much to ruin them by wearing.” -Laura Summers Tweet
I saw this tweet today from Laura Summers (she was joking — I think) and it reminded me of a few cyclists I used to know. These guys bought these beautiful road bicycles, you know, the kind they ride in the Tour de France. And they loved them so much they were always perfectly clean, lubed, and polished. But the thing was, they were so focused on keeping their bikes clean and beautiful, they didn’t risk ruining them by climbing on and riding. And of course, that’s what they’re designed to do.
I can be like that about my faith sometimes. Jesus is so perfect. When it’s just He and I, in prayer, it’s so perfect. When it’s just me, by myself, singing praise to Him, it’s so perfect (except for my voice). But as soon as I venture out to engage with people, things start to change fast. When I venture out to church, or if I engage in conversation with a brother, or if I try to help out someone in need, problems arise. Things get dirty. Things get messy.
Just as soon as I involve people, elements of carelessness, chaos, and confusion are introduced — even heartbreak sometimes occurs.
If Laura chooses to wear her shoes, they’ll get scuffed up. They’ll get dirt on them. It’s not a question of if, but when.
When my buddies decide (finally) to ride their bikes, they’ll accumulate road grime, guaranteed.
When I engage with people, for Christ, there are going to be problems. But I need to engage anyway. I need to love God enough, and to love people enough, to find a way to deal with the difficulties I’m sure to encounter when I put myself out there among others.
God wants me to. He knows I can’t love people without engaging. And He knows if I bear fruit for Him, it’ll get messy. But He designed our faith this way. (James 2:14-26)
Life will be messy if you choose to engage, if you choose to put yourself out there for Him, if you choose to bear fruit.
But we have to do it anyway.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, Simone Contarini, Italian, about 1640 (Photo Credit: AlainTruong.com)
Read Genesis 39:6-23
In our last post on Genesis, we looked at Joseph’s seduction in light of Joseph’s fidelity — to God. (See previous post on Joseph’s Seduction) Today we’ll look at the same story, but we’ll focus on the 5 steps Joseph took to avoid temptation.
(The paraphrase of Genesis 39:6-23 is the same as our last post on Genesis. So if you read the last post on Genesis, you might like to skip down to the next section.)
Genesis 39:6-23
I don’t know what Joseph’s early responsibilities were when he first began at Potiphar’s house, but they may have been intensely physical because Joseph was ripped (“well built” verse six tells us). He was also a good looking guy. And because of this, Joseph’s master’s wife notices him and begins to proposition him, without much in the way of subtlety either.
“Come to bed with me!” she says to him.
But Joseph consistently refuses her. He says, Hey look, my master has such trust in me that he doesn’t concern himself with anything in the house; he’s put everything he owns in my care. I’m the top guy here. He’s kept nothing of his from me, except for you, because you’re his wife. So, with all that in mind, how could I possibly do such a terrible thing, and sin against God?
But in spite of his refusals, she persists. Day, after day, after day she continues to proposition him. But Joseph continues to refuse to go to bed with her, or even to be with her.
One day though, he goes into the house to do his work, and the place is empty. None of the other servants are around. Potiphar’s wife is the only one there. She grabs him by his cloak and says (for the one-thousandth time), “Come to bed with me!” But he escapes out of his cloak, leaving it in her hand, and runs out of the house.
When she realizes Joseph left his cloak in her hand when he fled, she calls in her servants and says, Look! This Hebrew is making a joke of us! He came in here to have his way with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he left his cloak laying here beside me and ran.
She keeps his cloak next to her until Potiphar comes home, and she tells him her story: That Hebrew slave guy you brought us came into my room to force himself on me. But fortunately, I screamed, and as soon as I did he left his cloak beside me and ran. This is how your slave has treated me!
After Potiphar hears the story he’s outraged. He takes Joseph and has him locked up where the king’s prisoners are kept.
But, while Joseph’s in the king’s prison, the Lord is with him again! God shows him kindness and grants Joseph favor with the warden. Eventually, his situation is the same or similar to when he was with Potiphar. The warden puts Joseph in charge of all the prisoners and gives him the job of running the place. And like Potiphar, the warden trusts him completely, he pays no attention to anything Joseph’s responsible for, because the Lord is with Joseph, and gives him success in everything he puts his hand to.
Joseph’s 5 Steps to Avoid Temptation
Joseph, a young man, in the prime of his life and possessing all the desires young men in the prime of their life possess, somehow avoids this temptation from Potiphar’s wife.
How’d he do that?
We see from our story, he took 5 steps.
1)Responsibility — Take It
We see in verse 9, Joseph says the words, “How then could I do such a…”
“How then could I…” Joseph said. He took responsibility for his own behavior. How many might have said, “Well what could I do? I’m just a slave and she’s the boss’s wife. I mean, really, I couldn’t refuse now could I?” Or, “Come on, give me a break, this was a situation where an older woman took advantage of a young man. What would you expect someone my age to do, with hormones raging? How could I help it?”
No, Joseph didn’t go there. He took responsibility for his own actions.
2)Recognize Sin
We see in verse 9, Joseph recognizes what Potiphar’s wife wants as something wicked and terrible. Joseph sees it for what it is: sin. The Bible is God’s word for humanity. He loves us enough to define sin in His scriptures and to warn us away from it. He does so not because he’s against pleasure, but because He knows in the long run, sin is disastrous for you. He’s trying to spare you from heartache and pain you’ll experience in the end, though you may experience pleasure in the short term. Today there’s a huge push in our culture to discount what the Bible says about sin as old-fashioned and irrelevant. Right now there’s actually a website author offering 1 million dollars for Tim Tebow’s virginity. This person’s stated goal is to bring our culture to the point where adultery is viewed as inconsequential. (see Washington Post article by Esther Fleece) I know that might seem unlikely right now, but many sins that were previously recognized as bad behavior have already been brought a long way toward a perception they’re trivial, or even a perception those who commit a given sin are victims.
Joseph didn’t discount what Potiphar’s wife asked him to do. He saw it for what it was. So should you and I.
3)Respond to God
We see in the last part of verse 9 how Joseph recognizes, if he gratifies his desires, he will sin against God. Joseph has a depth of relationship with God such that it would grieve Joseph to sin against Him. He can’t bear to sin because he can’t bear to disappoint the God he loves. Yes, he’s loyal to his earthly master Potiphar, but in the end, it’s God who Joseph is most concerned about. Living your life loving God, and concerned about God and what He thinks is one of the great keys to living the abundant life God has in mind for you. (John 15:11) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’” Jesus said in Matthew 22:37. (See previous post: How to Love Like Jesus — God First)
4)Refuse to be Present
We see in verse 10 he not only refused to go to bed with Potiphar’s wife, but he refused to even be with her. I wonder how many marriages would still be intact if both the husband and the wife decided to simply avoid putting themselves in situations that might lead to temptation. I’m talking about not friending the old high school flame on Facebook. I’m talking about staying out of bars. I’m talking about never allowing yourself to be alone with another person of the opposite sex, ever.
What a small price to pay if it results in you keeping your family intact.
And what a heavy price to pay if you break your family apart.
Today divorce is so acceptable, our culture has endorsed it so strongly, most are so nonchalant about it, you never hear much concerning its consequences. But five years after divorce more than 1/3 of children experience depression. Kids from divorced families are less successful in life than children from intact families, especially in their careers and their relationships. And the great majority of children from divorced families say they want their original family back together.
After a divorce, custody usually goes to the mother. And about half of all single mothers live below the poverty line — on average for six years. For African American single mothers it’s even worse: 2/3 are still single and in poverty 10 years after their divorce. (The Atlantic, McLanahan-Garfinkel)
No one talks about these things. You never see these findings in the news.
Joseph was a slave and didn’t have control of his own life to the degree you do. Yet he did his best to avoid putting himself in situations where he might be tempted. You can do the same.
5)Run
We see in verse 12, when he was unavoidably confronted with temptation, he fled. He left. He split immediately.
When she grabbed his robe, he didn’t stop and use the moment to teach Potiphar’s wife about his faith. He didn’t hesitate and share with her that he’s flattered but must decline, or how it’s nothing personal, or how it might be different, under different circumstances. He didn’t spend one moment on one word of conversation. And he didn’t go back for his coat. He bailed, he beat it, he bounced out of there — right away.
Again, how many marriages might still be intact if this were how people responded to sexual temptation.
Next time you’re confronted with temptation: leave, immediately.
The 6th Step (Two failures, and two outcomes: Why David recovered and Samson did not)
As an important aside, there’s one way in which Joseph was a major anomaly, he was able to avoid temptation without support from believing friends. This is profoundly rare. We can see the more usual pattern for humanity in scripture when we look at two other men of God who experienced temptation. Both Samson and David fell into temptation but only one of them recovered from its consequences. And here’s the reason why.
More was written about Samson than most other men in the Bible yet not one friend is named in all the pages devoted to Samson’s life. He was a loner. In contrast, David’s list of friends is a long one. And we see that he had certain friends like Jonathan who were especially close. (1 Samuel 18:1-5) And we see David was open to being held accountable, for instance when he subjected himself to correction by his friend Nathan. (2 Samuel 12:1-14)
So here’s the deal: To rid yourself of a temptation, like porn or alcohol or some other selfish pursuit, do whatever you have to do to find friends–men who have overcome the same temptation you’re battling against. Sit down with each of these men one at a time and tell them your story without pretense. If you become open and vulnerable, you’ll be surprised at how many friends you attract.
Going it alone as Samson did will almost certainly produce the same result that Samson experienced. You’ll become a prisoner. You’ll find yourself living life blindly walking in circles.
Instead, invest in friends the way David did. Develop close friendships the way David did. And become a man who is wide open to being held accountable–the way David did. Invest in friends the same way David did and you’ll find the same results that David did. He confessed his sin. He repented. And he never fell into sexual temptation again.
Joseph was an anomaly, an outlier. The first five steps are only the beginning steps to avoid temptation. The sixth step, that’s actually the biggest and most important step for us all.
Joseph Imprisoned
Of course, Potiphar’s wife had no integrity when it came to her marriage, and we see she had no integrity when she gave her account of what happened either. She lied and told her husband the Hebrew tried to rape her, using Joseph’s coat as a false proof of her deception. Interestingly, Joseph’s coat was also central to his brother’s deception before Jacob concerning his death.
We live in a fallen world. You can do everything according to God’s word and still wind up in a dungeon.
But Potiphar’s response is interesting because the punishment for attempted rape was death. And even though Joseph, a slave, was (wrongly) found to have attempted rape against the wife of a powerful official, Joseph is not put to death but put in prison. Verse 19 says Potiphar was angry but doesn’t say who he was angry with. Perhaps he recognized Joseph’s innocence but was forced to do something because of his wife’s insistence. Perhaps he even gave instruction for the warden to show Joseph favor.
Whether it came through Potiphar or not, God was the reason Joseph found favor in prison.
Even in the dungeon, God was with Joseph.
Nothing can separate us from His love.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Newly released book by Kurt Bennett, now available on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.
Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
I was going to show the original video but I just can’t bring myself to give this guy any more attention than he’s already getting. I wouldn’t post on it at all but some in the media have portrayed him as representing how Christians in the U.S. feel about homosexuality.
A few days ago, Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church posted a video to his church’s website calling for the concentration and ultimate death of “queers and homosexuals.” If you really must see the video, click on the link to Dennis Burk’s blog at the bottom of this post. Burk and other Christian leaders have condemned this man’s behavior.
Honestly, ask yourself, how long have you been a believer? And have you ever heard a pastor or other Christian leader speak this way? I know in my thirty-one years as a Christian and in my exposure to many many pastors, church leaders, and Christian bloggers online, I’ve never heard any Christian leader write or speak in this manner.
Jesus loved the adulterous woman from John chapter 8 and Jesus loves those who live a gay lifestyle.
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the groupand said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.Now what do you say?”They were using this question as a trap,in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stoneat her.”Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Ian was just a normal college guy in a relationship with Larissa. They dated for 10 months with the intention of getting married. But Ian’s car accident changed everything.
How Larissa handles it blows me away! I’m reminded of how undeserving and unworthy I am, yet in spite of that, Jesus desires me (and you) as His bride.
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Do this and everything else just flows.
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Young Man: “But what about some of that stuff in Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Old Man: “Don’t sacrifice what you know, on the altar of what you don’t know.”
In Deuteronomy there’s page after page of ancient laws, rules, and regulations. Most of them make obvious sense or they’re explained in scripture. A few seem awkward and strange, and are presented without explanation.
Of course all of us have questions about certain scriptures in the Bible. But when that becomes your focus, I think you’re walking into a trap. If I become obsessed with those parts of scripture I don’t understand, I risk discounting, or even sacrificing all the rest of scripture, most of which I do understand and recognize to be true.
A convert of the great revival leader, Charles Finney, drew this analogy concerning focus on what you don’t understand in the Bible. He said of himself, before his conversion:
“It’s as if I had been called to pass judgement on some splendid piece of architecture, some magnificent temple; and that as soon as I came in view of one corner of the structure, I fell into disgust, and turned away and refused to inspect it farther. I condemned the whole, without at all regarding its proportions.”
Give regard to the whole of scripture. Give regard to its proportions. Focus on what you do know. Live out what you know to be true. Give thanks for the scriptures God uses to reach you.
At the regular weekly Bible study I attend, we’re in Deuteronomy right now. And speaking of these matters our pastor made the wise statement: “Don’t sacrifice what you know, on the altar of what you don’t know.” (see Wednesday, May 16, 2012 teaching at JonCouson.com)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.”
-Sir Isaac Newton
Today I came across a pastor who’s encouraging his congregation to read their Bibles cover to cover. I was surprised to learn, according to his post, only 10% of Christians in the U.S. have done this. (See New Vintage Leadership blog post) Since my original post on this topic, a twenty-something called me out on that statistic. Since I couldn’t find an original source, I’ll focus on another way the scriptures impact our lives — reading the Bible daily. According to a poll by the Barna Group, “Currently an estimated 40% of adults read the Bible during a typical week.” This is a drop of 5% from 1991. (see Barna Report on trends from 1991-2011)
Several years ago, my parents started reading through the Bible. As I watch them, I’m continually amazed at how it’s transforming their personalities and their lives. I’ve seen a similar transformation from reading through the Bible daily in my own life.
Yesterday a thirty-something shared with me, how he kept his word to his former employer who has now relocated from the Pacific NW to Southern Cal. He committed to remain there until the end of 2011, even though most other employees were jumping ship early. The others experienced short term gain, but in the long term, this thirty-something recognized he was better off keeping his integrity and letting his yes be yes, according to scripture. (Matthew 5:37) Today, in spite of the lean job market and the weak economy, he’s experiencing career advancement and favor. There are blessings associated with reading God’s word — and living according to His counsel.
Do you read the Bible daily?
Let me ask you this: What book is more important than the one containing the inspired words of God Himself?
I believe the key for most people is to read every day, just a little at a time. The first time I read through a One Year Bible it took me three years. You know what I say to that? So what! So what if it takes three years, or four, or five? Spending time reading the inspired words of God changes who I am.
It’ll change you too.
Start today.
“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
“…we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Last post on Genesis 37:1-4 we saw how both Joseph and Jesus’ brothers saw they were their father’s/Father’s favorite and how they envied them. We also saw how both Jesus and Joseph have a heart for their respective fathers.
In this post we’ll learn about Joseph’s dreams. Then after the story of Joseph’s dreams, we’ll discover how to learn what dream God has in mind for you.
Genesis 37:5-11
When his brothers saw he was their father’s favorite, they envied him, to the point where they couldn’t speak a kind word to him.
Around this same time, Joseph had a dream. He shared it with his brothers, with great excitement, I imagine, after which, they hated him all the more. He said, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
His brothers said to him, Do you intend to set yourself up to reign over us? Will you rule over us?
And they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
When he told his father about the second dream, his father rebuked him, What kind of dream is that? Will your mother and I and all your brothers bow down to the ground before you?
His brothers were jealous, but his father, though he rebuked him, kept the matter in mind and secretly wondered if there might not be something to these dreams.
Dreams:
Jesus very plainly states, the Old Testament scriptures “testify about me.” And that, Moses “wrote about me.” (John 5:39-40, John 5:45-46) We see it here in the story of Joseph. Like Joseph, Jesus had a dream given to Him by God. Joseph’s dream was to ultimately rule and reign in government. Jesus’ dream was to sacrifice Himself for all of humanity, then to rise up and ultimately rule and reign over everyone and everything, over all there is, at the right hand of the throne of God.
I’m going to give you 7 steps to help you learn what God’s dream is for you, but, before I do, I want to point out God’s dream for Joseph was only recognized by Joseph. His brothers derided him for it. And God’s dream for Jesus was only recognized by Jesus. In fact, when Jesus shared His dream, the religious establishment rejected Him, His own disciple Peter rebuked Him, and even after His dream was finished, after the resurrection, His disciples didn’t recognize Him at first.
So when God gives you your dream, don’t be surprised if you and God are the only two who recognize it. But don’t let that deter you. It didn’t deter Joseph. It didn’t deter Jesus. And as long as you follow the 7 steps below, don’t let it deter you.
So the question I want you to ask yourself right now is, “What is God’s dream for me? And how can I verify that dream is what God desires for me, in the most successful way possible.”
7 Steps to Learning God’s Dream for You:
1) Give Thanks and Praise
What a secret this is to successful prayer about any matter. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name, Psalm 100:4 tells us. When you’re entering into His presence to ask Him to give you the precise dream He has for you, first give thanks for prayers already answered, and for those dreams, however small, which have already happened for you.
2)God’s Word
Immerse yourself in God’s word. Soak up God’s perspective of you and the world around you. Seeing yourself and the world through God’s eyes is one of the most powerful things you can do. In this life we see as through a glass darkly, at best, but God’s word is a lamp for your feet and a light for your path. (1 Corinthians 13:12, Psalm 119:105) Time in His word correlates with enlightenment regarding His will.
3)Go Pray
When Peter received his vision on the rooftop, he was in a quiet place, in prayer. (Acts 10:9-13) When John received the great revelation, he was in a quiet place on the island of Patmos, and he was “in the Spirit.” (Revelation 1:9-10) When Nebuchadnezzar demanded his dream be interpreted, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah prayed for revelation, and received it. (Daniel 2:17-19)
So turn off the TV, close the cover of your laptop, put your phone in another room, and carve out quiet time for you to pray for God’s revelation concerning what dream He has in mind for you. Over and over again we see in scripture, people in a quiet place, very intentionally seeking to hear from God.
4)God’s People
After Jesus ascended and left the disciples, they were without their leader for the first time in several years. They needed direction. So what did they do? They gathered together. They were all together in one place when God made it obvious for them, what to do next. (Acts 2:1)
So find people who love God with everything they have and hang out with them as much as possible. Go to church. Ask questions about the dreams of those who are more godly than yourself. Pray with people who love God with all their hearts, minds, and souls about what God wants for your life. Hanging with people who love God with everything might be the most important part of learning what God’s specific dream is for you.
5)Give Love
As we’ll see later, God’s dream for Joseph was to save millions of people from a devastating famine. God’s dream for Jesus was to save all of mankind from their failures, and their inherent faults and flaws, and to reconcile us to God.
You probably noticed, in both dreams, given to Joseph and Jesus, serving others is central to the dream. I’m not saying you have to be a savior of the world, but how others are blessed by your dream provides great indication of whether or not your dream is simply a self absorbed means of selfish gratification or is truly the dream God has in mind for you.
After all, you have to recognize, “If in my dream I do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
6)Great passion
God designed you for your dream, and your desires and passions are central to that design. So if you hate high humidity, bugs, and camping in the jungle, your dream probably doesn’t involve missionary work in Africa. I’ll never forget reading about how one of the big considerations for Chuck Smith choosing to pastor a church in Costa Mesa was the great surfing available in that area. In fact, the first time he decided to teach through the entire Bible was partly because he needed enough material to keep him in Costa Mesa where he could continue to surf.
A big consideration of whether or not your dream is truly from the Lord is, how well it fits with your passions and desires.
7)Give Thanks
“Well we already gave thanks in step 1,” you might be saying.
Give thanks again. Only this time give thanks, in faith, for what the Lord is going to do.
Moving forward with an attitude of hope, expectation, and thanksgiving is key to successfully receiving and living out God’s dream for you. Besides, one thing you know for sure is to give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
I’m not proposing this as some kind of formula for learning God’s dream for you. God can’t be confined to a formula. But look through scripture and see if it isn’t true. Those who received their dreams and revelation from God were 1) thankful, 2) spent time in God’s word (or even wrote some of God’s word) 3) prayerful, 4) hung with people who loved God with their whole heart, 5) lovers of God and people, 6) passionate, and 7) faithful.
There is no formula but it’s undeniable these seven steps are modeled in scripture.
Your dream becomes your story:
What a phenomenal story resulted from Joseph receiving and living out God’s dream for him.
And what an amazing story was born from Jesus receiving and living out God’s dream for Him.
You have to ask yourself, “What story will be told about my life? When people tell my story, what will they say?”
“He watched a lot of TV?”
or
“He was amazing at that MMOG, RPG, or at that first person shooter game?”
or
“His Minecraft creation was the best I’ve ever seen?”
Or will your story be one of value from God’s perspective:
“He went to work everyday and did his job with integrity and honor, as unto the Lord.”
or
“He lived out God’s word, as a father and husband.”
or even,
“He loved the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his mind.”
or even,
“He dared great adventures, for Christ. He swung for the fence, for Him.”
or even,
“That guy really loved people like Jesus.”
You see, in the end, finding and choosing to follow God’s dream for you, will determine what story will be told of you.
Try those 7 steps for a couple of months, see what happens to your life.
Live out the dream God has designed uniquely for you.
Photo at the top of the blog post by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus) now available on Amazon!
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.
Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
The Story of Ian and Larissa
Ian was just a normal college guy in a relationship with Larissa. They dated for 10 months with the intention of getting married. But Ian’s car accident changed everything.
How Larissa handles it blows me away! I’m reminded of how undeserving and unworthy I am, yet in spite of that, Jesus desires me (and you) as His bride.
References:
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Posted on May 22, 2012 by Kurt Bennett
Bible Commentary, Bible Study, How Jesus Loved People - How You Can Too, I Wish Someone Had Told Me This When I Was Young, Marriage
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