Genesis 45
Romans 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Genesis 45:5-7 is such a moving story. Joseph can not contain himself any longer. He has to tell his brothers who he is. But, Joseph knows how guilty they feel. He has heard them talking. He has tested them to see if they are repentant. But Joseph longs to share with them what God has done. In these 3 verses, Joseph assures his brothers 3 times, \u201cGod is the one who sent me here!\u201d Yes, in your weakness, you sold me as a slave, but God in his power used that to send me ahead of you to preserve our family and keep His promise! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really think this is a beautiful example of what Paul talks about in Rom 15:1-3 \u201cWe who are strong have an obligation to bear with the feelings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his (neighbor\u2019s) good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, \u201cThe reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me\u2026\u201d Joseph also, bore reproach. He bore his brother\u2019s cruelty, and stood strong in faith! Now as the \u201cstrong one\u201d he is building them up and pointing them to God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joseph could have been bitter. He could have sought revenge. He was the ruler of the land. He could have done anything he wanted to his brothers. But, instead, he lived like Romans 14:7-9 talked about yesterday, \u201cFor none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord\u2026 For to this end Christ died and lived again\u2026\u201d Jesus didn\u2019t live for Himself, and secured salvation for all of us. Joseph didn\u2019t live for Himself, and became the salvation for all of Israelite people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul continues in Rom 15:5 \u201cMay the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.\u201d Like we talked about in Romans 8, the good God is working through the difficulties in our lives, is God\u2019s glory! When we choose to not live for ourselves, and instead seek to point people to christ, it will produce unity with Christ, and therefore with each other, so that together, with one voice, we will glorify God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wow, what would it be like if we as believers were the strong ones who, in faith and dependence on God, didn\u2019t hold on to our offenses and grievances, but instead let them go and live unto Christ? Would Romans 15:1-3 describe you? Is your faith strong enough to act like Joseph did? Can you give up your own personal agenda in order to build up the one you are in conflict with? When you are offended, or someone does something you don\u2019t like, are you able to see the greater reward of together with one voice glorifying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus? (Rom 15:5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is possible, and it\u2019s what Paul was praying for. He ended with an encouragement. Rom 15:13 \u201cMay the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This all starts with \u201cnot living for ourselves Rom 14:7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bible Reading Genesis 45Romans 15 Devotional thoughts Genesis 45:5-7 is such a moving story. Joseph can not contain himself any longer. He has to tell his brothers who he is. But, Joseph knows how guilty they feel. He has heard them talking. He has tested them to see if they are repentant. But Joseph longs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-declarations-of-truth","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}