Thursday, June 14, 2007

I Am Jospeh (part 1)

The reason I am intrigued with Joseph is becuase he grew up in a household with a strong generational curse that was overflowing with lies, jealousy, favoritisim and adultery-- to name a few. Joseph grew up with one dad, four sets of mothers, four sets of siblings. That in it of itself is cause for deep anguish. Add to the fact that his brothers hate dhim so much that they beat him to the point of death and sold him into slavery. From Abraham to Joseph, I believe each generation had a chance to stop it but Joseph was the only one who said enough was enough. So I want to go through each generation and what they did and how the generational curse multiplied and carried over to the next generation hardache and pain.

So let's go through this slowly together. First up, Abraham...
ABRAHAM: When God told Abram to leave his father, family and his country and go to a place that God would show him-- Abram disobeyed because we find out he decided to bring his nephew Lot with him. Disobeying God brought hardship on Abram when it came to sharing the land. Having Lot around gave Abram extra problems. Lot also chose to live in Sodom and Gomorrah, and when God decided to destroy the cities because of their sin, Abraham had to intercede in behave of Lot. When Abraham and Sarah were crossing over into foreign lands, Abraham told Sarah to lie about thier relationship becuase Abraham feared death. He told Sarah to say they were brothers and sisters. This may seem like a small lie, but by following this family lineage, you will see that the lies get bigger and "badder" and I believe it started here. The ruler of the forgien land thought Sarah was attractive and treated Abram well. But God brought a curse on the ruler. He found out the truth about Sarah and Abram and sent them away. Fear make sus do crazy things. Wrong things. We have to take hold of fear. Take hold of our thoughts and make them obedient to Jesus Christ.
So far, we already see the seeds of disobedience and deception. However, I think it's important to note that in the book of Hebrews God still called Abraham His friend. So no matter what we do, there is still forgiveness for our sins and redemption. Thank God.

Thursday, June 07, 2007