If you’re wondering whether your Maker is at all interested in your life, today’s chapter shows how a coat and a couple of dreams can put a shepherd boy onto an international stage for the next four millennia…
READ GENESIS 37 (If you prefer audio, click the audio icon above the script box or use the dropdown arrow for a different language text) When finished, make notes if you’d like, of what stands out for you. Feel free to use the “Leave a Comment” box on this page below to also write some of your thoughts to me.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
January 19th is forever part of our family calendar – the birthday of our dearly departed son – and as I read today’s chapter once again, I feel Jacob’s pain in his words and actions. After his son, his beloved son (in him he was well pleased) had been taken away from him, Jacob refused to be comforted:
“Surely I’ll descend to the depths in mourning for my son.” [v35]
But the story of Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat (as Andrew Lloyd Webber has called it) was the one thing that produced a perfect storm, and it changed the direction of an entire people group. Unbeknown to Jacob in his unbearable gut-wrenching grief, the Creator God was weaving a perfect plan in the midst of the storm. It was the start of a promise that had been predicted when Father God gave it to Abraham (Joseph’s great-grandfather), recorded 200 years earlier, then miraculously retained though it took almost six centuries to fulfil.[a]
Knowing now that this 8000-year-old drama, that we’ve been covering in these Breadcrumbs since January 1, is an intricate technicoloured tapestry of interwoven threads – and this is still unfolding today – I don’t want to fixate on today’s disaster as I progress through my portion of Life on Planet Earth. Instead, I want to focus on HIStory and the knowledge of HOPE that rises when I uncover His true and perfect Plan for us all. …Read More… CLICK on “19 January – Additional Notes”
But what about your thoughts – can you tell me what today’s “breadcrumb” is? Leave a note in the “Comments” box below to tell me what you think of today’s chapter.
Finding it hard to speak with the Creator of this Global MasterPlan? The rest of this webpage uses Jesus’ own prayer to help…[b]
THE LORD’S PRAYER:
1. Praise: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come! Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven …”
Great are You, Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain. [Psalm 48:1]
2. Ask: “…Give us today our daily bread…”
The World: Use the link to pray for the Americas[c]
Your Country: Labourers for God’s Harvest Field[d]
Yourself: Personal journey through grief and loss
Your concerns for today
You’re always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before You. Yet I ask: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? Hear the cry of today’s victims, Lord. [Jeremiah 12:1]
3. Admit: “…Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us…”
Help me to remember not to keep talking so proudly, Father God; or let my mouth speak with arrogance, for You are a God who knows and, by You, deeds are weighed. [1 Samuel 2:3]
4. Protect: “…Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
Jesus said: “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [Mark 14:38]
“For Yours Lord is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory now and forever. Amen!”
When Jesus was questioned, tested, tricked or in His hour of great need, He always spoke things that were previously written in God’s Word.[e] Following these memory verses from ten topics, will help you learn 52 verses from the bible in a year! THIS WEEK’S MEMORY VERSE: Topic = The Creator God’s Salvation Plan
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
[a] Genesis 15:12-16
[b] Matthew 6:5-15
[c] http://www.operationworld.org/north-america
[d] Matthew 9:37-38
[e] Matthew 4:4,6,7,10; 11:10; 21:13; and 26:24,31