Genesis 29:31-31:55

“in front of them” Genesis 30:41

I’ve always found Jacob’s technique of sheep breeding to be quite… interesting. He would place branches with strips of bark peeled off of them in front of the sheep while they were mating which always resulted in the offspring turning out striped or spotted. Now, I’m not a scientist, but how in the world is that possible??? And yet it according to scripture it happened time and time again, he would take two regular sheep, breed them in the presence of a tree limb with stripes on it, and out would pop a spotted or striped little lamb.

So today when I read this I just had to ask the Father why on Earth He would include such a story in the sacred scripts. How is this significant to us today? His answer blew me away!

“Jacob put the desired result ‘in front of them’ before they had ever even conceived.” Now, on the surface that doesn’t seem that tremendous until you go where the Holy Spirit took me on this one.

Jesus.

What was it He always said to someone He was inviting into fellowship with Him? “Come follow Me.” Jesus was continually putting Himself “in front of” His Disciples. He was constantly telling them, do what I do; let Me show you the Way. A good shepherd doesn’t drives his flock ahead of him, he always leads it.

As the Israelites were exodus-ing out of Egypt where was the pillar of cloud/fire? He didn’t go after them and make them stumble their way through the wilderness without a guide. It went “in front of” them so that they would never be lost.

God never leaves us without guidance. He never makes us stumble around in the dark without a Light because He is the Light and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. And He is our desired result, is He not? Always in front of us showing us the Way to go. Hallelujah.

Genesis 26:6-29:30

“We can plainly see that the LORD is with you.” Genesis 26:28

How? How could they plainly see that the LORD was with Isaac? If we take a glance up at verse 12 we see that “When Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the LORD blessed him. He became a very rich man, and his wealth continued to grow.”

What was it again that God kept saying to Abraham, Isaac’s dad? Oh yeah! “I will bless you and make you famous and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

In chapter fifteen of Genesis, “the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, ‘I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River” (verse 18) You see, “Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (Galatians 3:6) “God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the scripture doesn’t say ‘to his children,’ as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says ‘to his child’ and that of course, means Christ.” (Galatians 3:16) “And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” (Galatians 3:29) “The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.” (Galatians 3:7) “God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.'” (Acts 3:25) “For He made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.” (Luke 1:55)

So I restate my original question to you today. How? How could someone looking into the box of your life plainly see that the LORD is with you? HE IS WITH YOU, it’s the Truth. Matthew 28:20 says, “I am with you always even to the end of the age.” But how that shows up and blooms in our lives is as unique as we are. How is the LORD’s presence in your life evident to you and to those around you? I really want to know, so hit “reply” on your email or “comment” below online. In Luke chapter one Mary breaks into a song of praise because of the LORD’s presence in her life, what would your song sound like? It’s important for us to daily count our blessings so even if you don’t comment here or write a song, find some way to express your praise to our ever present help in times of trouble, because He is with you.

Genesis 24:1-26:5

“So he [Laban] rushed out to the spring where the man was still standing beside his camels. Laban said to him, ‘Come and stay with us, you who are blessed by the LORD! Why are you standing here outside the town when I have a room all ready for you and a place prepared for the camels?'” Genesis 24:30-31

This scripture was way too beautiful for me not to break it down and share it with you. If you’ll notice there are five sections to this scripture:

1. So he rushed out to the spring where the man was still standing beside his camels.
2. Laban said to him, “Come and stay with us…”
3. “you who are blessed by the LORD!”
4. “Why are you standing here outside the town”
5. “I have a room all ready for you and a place prepared for your camels.”

So today I’m going to take each section and share with you a correlating scripture that the Holy Spirit gave me in order to fully convey His message.

1. The man standing by the spring

   In Psalm chapter one we find the psalmist painting a picture of a relationship with God:

   “¹ Oh, the joys of those who do not
       follow the advice of the wicked,
       or stand around with sinners,
       or join in with mockers.
   ² But they delight in the law of the Lord,
       meditating on it day and night.
   ³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
       bearing fruit each season.
   Their leaves never wither,
       and they prosper [or are blessed] in all they do.

   

   In John 7:37-39 Jesus tells us the Truth about standing close to springs of water:

   ³⁷ On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! ³⁸ Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” ³⁹ (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

2. “Come and stay with us…”

   While Laban may have been the first to say these words, he was by no means the last! In a slight modification of the words themselves, Jesus uttered the same sentiment precisely in Matthew 4:18-22:

   “¹⁸ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁹ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ²⁰ And they left their nets at once and followed him.

   ²¹ A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. ²² They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.”

   Jesus calls us each to “come and stay with Him”. He wants for us to follow in His footsteps and to stick close by His side in order to soak in the Living Water of His word. And what’s the benefit of a relationship with Jesus?

   ²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (According to Matthew 11:28-30.)

   The burden we are given is to bear His Light in this the Valley of the Shadow of Darkness. In this relationship with Jesus we are given the work of entering into His rest.

   

3. “You who are blessed by the LORD…”

   Time and time again throughout the story of Abraham we hear God repeat the words, “I will bless you and make you famous and you will be a blessing to others.” Over and over God is emphasizing the most basic principle of being a Christ follower and a Living Water drinker, God blesses you in order to for you to be a blessing to others. Did you catch that? God’s first goal is to bless you. YOU! Now!

   In Psalm 1:3 it even points out that the end result of that tree drinking up that water day after day is that it bears fruit and prospers in everything that it does. Think about it, it would be impossible for you to bless someone else if you hadn’t first been blessed yourself. You couldn’t comfort someone going through a hard time if you hadn’t ever been comforted yourself. You wouldn’t know how to do it. You can’t bless others financially if you’re not financially blessed yourself. You can’t bless others with words of wisdom if you haven’t been blessed with wisdom yourself. You can’t lend someone your lawnmower when theirs breaks down if you don’t have a lawnmower to lend, now can you? You see how it works? God blesses you FIRST and foremost in order that through you He can bless others who may not have the same relationship with Him that you do. You are blessed to be a blessing.

4. “Why are you standing here outside the town…”

   Now this one gets a little… interesting. This phrase gives us this picture of a man standing outside the city gates. There’s a verse found at the very end of the Bible in Revelation 22:12-15 that bears a striking resemblance to this very image:

   ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. ¹⁵ Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

   While still taking up residence in the Valley of the Shadow of Death we have not yet entered into the city past those pearly gates of heaven. Technically speaking we’re still outside the city with the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie. But there’s that significant detail we grasped onto back in point number one – we’re standing next to the spring like trees planted by the river in a desert wilderness. Jesus is that spring of Living Water from which we can drink deeply all the days of our lives through the miracle of His Word alive and active in us. He is the Daily Bread served up fresh and piping hot morning after morning as His mercies we seek.

   

5. “I have a room all ready for you”

   While our flesh and bone may still reside on the hard packed clay of Earth where the Adversary roams seeking whom he may devour, John 14:1-7 gives us tremendous hope… and a home.

   “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.”

   ⁵ “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

   ⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

   Sound familiar? There is a room, prepared just for you, in the Father’s house. It has all your favorite things in it and your name is on the door because He’s got it waiting for you when the time is right. Today, through Laban, Jesus tells us the Truth, “I am the way, the truth and the life. Outside the city there is trouble in every form, but there is also a river of Living Water. When you ‘Come and follow Me’ you will find yourself blessed with washed robes and able to enter in through the gates of Heaven where you will live forever with Jesus in the room prepared especially for YOU. (And there’s even room for your camels too, if you have any.) 😉

   Do you want to follow Jesus today? It’s as simple as saying, “Yes” right here right now. You can whisper it. You can SHOUT it. But whatever you do, just say it! “YES Jesus! I want to follow YOU! Please come into my heart and spring forth from my heart like the spring of Living Water that You are. I am in the desert wilderness. I am weary and heavily burdened and in desperate need of rest. Thank You for forgiving me of all my sins and taking them upon Yourself at the cross. I accept Your gift of salvation. Please help me to walk in Your ways. Please bless me so that I may be a blessing to the others around me in everything that I do – from laundry to finances – may I be more like you day by day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Genesis 20:1-23:20

“I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you.” Genesis 22:16-17

This heart sticker literally fell out of my pants after I had been wearing them all day! I have no clue where it came from!

It’s hard to see because I couldn’t edit it before posting (sorry). It’s communion in church this morning. It was dark at that moment.
A heart shaped rock on the sidewalk just outside the doors at church.

Genesis 17:1-19:38

“Abraham returned to his tent.” Genesis 18:33

This past Wednesday I was fortunate enough to turn on the TV just as Wednesdays in the Word with Beth Moore came on. I missed the beginning of the program and her message but that didn’t seem to matter because God still shook me up with her words. She mentioned how she had thrown something out on her blog and asked the readers to write their own obituary for their “old man”. I got so excited because I actually remember reading that blog post and heavily considered writing something for it but never got around to actually doing it. She read a few of the entries and they were nice, but the last one totally threw me a curve ball. Although I hadn’t contributed my own words to her blog comments section, the piece that she was reading could have been my own. The author was writing about the death of her passive self – the part of her that allowed people to walk all over her. After she finished reading the obituary Beth walked over to a chair with a white stuffed person in it (I’m guessing the “old self”) and she picked it up by the back of the neck and talked about how there are some of us that when our old self dies no one morns. Why? Because they liked our old self!!! They liked that person that was easily manipulated to do whatever they wanted us to do. And you know who else likes that person? Satan! He loves “weak-willed women” who are easily manipulated by emotion or struggle. He loves those people who are easy to push over and get to do what he wants them to do.

But you know who he hates? (I’ll use Beth’s words from chapter thirteen of So Long, Insecurity You’ve Been a Bad Friend to Us.) Satan hates people who “decide to be strong willed about what God strongly wills”. I LOVE that sentence!!!!! Probably because I so desperately want to embody that sentence. I want to BE that person. On page 246 Beth says, “I remember being in relationships where my will was consistently weak and I felt almost powerless. I would determine in advance what decision I would make when the opportunity arose, only to lose all resolve once I was in the person’s company.” This past week I’ve been in two circumstances where I had made the decision in advance that I would stand up for myself only to shrink like a violet when the occasion came to do what I had planned. I hate that part of me that dissolves as soon as opposition comes its way. I make fun of my dachshund all the time for being such a weenie, but all I’m really doing is calling the pot black. I’m the real weenie.

God’s been teaching me how to stand up for myself and to grow a backbone – because I realize today, I was self-less. I was everything everyone else wanted me to be. I would do anything that anyone wanted of me. I was a push over. I was unselfish to the point of having no self. Which most Christians would, from the outside, view that as a good thing. But it’s not. It’s like Beth said on the Wednesday’s in the Word program, “that [passive] person is killing ME”.

God made ME to be ME. He didn’t make me to be someone else or who everyone else wants me to be, but Who He created me to be. Unique and different… special. But I’m not being different if I’m always following the crowd instead of the Holy Spirit. I’m not special if I’m not celebrating who God made me to be by standing up for what I believe instead of quietly sitting in the corner. I AM a rare one of a kind masterpiece, but no one will ever know that if I spend my life imitating others instead of being me.
On page 248 of So Long, Insecurity You’ve Been a Bad Friend to Us Beth recommends that we “rethink any relationship where you tend to be remarkably consistently weak willed.” Because “a person cannot be whole in a relationship where he or she feels powerless to make healthy choices.” (pg. 247) If you’re in a toxic relationship you need to think very seriously about getting out of that relationship. If someone is taking advantage of your insecurity they are not being your friend, they’re being your foe. If you’re in a relationship where someone is consistently taking advantage of you, you need to get out of that relationship – it’s just not healthy for either of you.

Genesis 11:10-16:16

So this morning as I read I was struck with a VERY interesting thought. In Genesis 12:7 the LORD appears to Abraham and says, “I will give this land to your descendants.” He was referring to the land of Canaan, what the Israelites later called The Promised Land and what we today call Israel.

Now in this verse there is a very specific word that is translated here as Abraham’s “descendants”; from the original Hebrew it’s best translated into the English word, “seed”. But for this more modern translation they chose the word descendants in order to convey the spirit of the message this passage is portraying. However, that specific word seed comes into play in the New Testament in reference to this exact Promise.

Galatians 3:29 says, “And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”

Now, according to this passage, everything that God promised Abraham He promised us too because we’re his children through faith in Jesus. But here’s something interesting that I’d never thought of before and I’d LOVE to get your take on it too. In this Galatians passage the word for children, in Greek literally means “seed”. Paul is being very precise with his wording so that no one can mistake his message – everything that God promised Abraham applies to us today as well.

Including the land of Israel itself!!!!!

I’m not exactly sure what that means for us today, but I know that that’s deep and there’s something there that’s highly significant for all of us in this day and age where Israel is under serious attack. We NEED to be praying for OUR Promised Land and everything that’s taking place there, especially the blood that is being shed and soaking the very ground of promise.

What do you think about that my friends? I really do want to hear from you on this extremely interesting little tid-bit. If you’re receiving this post via email, all you have to do is hit reply and whatever you type will be submitted online so that everyone can read it and join in the conversation. I know I don’t normally do this but I’d like to start an actual conversation on this one. I want to know your thoughts on the subject, to hear/read your prayers for the people being directly affected in Israel, to talk WITH you about this.

So, what do you think?

Genesis 6:1-11:9

“Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.” Genesis 9:17

I spent the day cleaning my desk today. I’m really trying to get organized in the hopes that it’ll help me get more accomplished in a day… we’ll see…

Anyway, in my sorting of pile after pile today I came across two things I just had to share with you. And while only one of them directly pertains to today’s Word of the Day, the other one certainly conveys the message God has given me to share with you today… and every day for that matter. 😉 He loves YOU!

1. This is a picture that Anna painted for me awhile back when she was out camping with Grandma and Grandpa. I absolutely LOVE the colors in this one, they just make me happy. I have the original on my desk and a digital copy on my desktop so I see them ALL the time to remind me of God’s promises and how He ALWAYS keeps them.

   

2. Is a piece I wrote on the woman with the alabaster box from Luke 7:36-50:

The alabaster box they refer to in the story is something that the women of that day would save an entire year’s salary to buy. They contained special perfumed oil for their wedding day. This particular box however was most likely paid for through prostitution. Every time she turned a trick she lost a piece of her soul and they went into that box. And now here she is at Jesus’ feet pouring it out on a man she barely knows. Why? Because He gave her her soul back – forgiven, whole, mended and NEW! She suddenly had real hope for her future, hope she hadn’t had before that. Jesus was, the first man to see HER and love who she is. Not her body or what she could do for Him, He loved HER, the woman she was inside.

Jesus loves YOU, the woman you are inside, that secret person that no one else gets to see all of, ever. That secret person, who isn’t perfect and doesn’t have it all together; that’s the person Jesus loves, because that’s the person who needs a Savior. Jesus loves YOU for YOU. Jesus loves you, not for what you can do or what you can say or how much money you can make or donate. No Jesus loves the you that is weak and frail and cries at the drop of a hat. He loves the you that tries to be strong but can’t quite keep up the rouse. He loves the you that wakes up with bed-tussled hair, no makeup and stumbles to the coffeepot in the morning. He loves the dark-sided under-belly that rages inside and cries out for forgiveness that your conscience isn’t willing to grant. But He is willing. And Jesus is able; because He really IS that good. He is willing to forgive you once and for ALL, are you willing to receive His forgiveness? Are you willing to forgive yourself?

Genesis 1:26-5:32

“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” Genesis 2:18

In today’s Word of the Day we read the account of the creation of mankind. God created man, placed him in the Garden of Eden to guard and cultivate it and then God spoke the first recorded negative statement, “It is NOT good for the man to be alone.” Throughout the rest of the creation account God has commented on His handiwork and said, “It is good”. Yet here God steps back and says, “Nope, it’s not quite right yet…” And so we read how God forms the animals and has Adam go through and name them all in search of a suitable partner for himself. Yet all Adam really ends up noticing is how all the animals have mates that match and he has… empty space.

I think God really shows off His ingenious designing skills with this one because He *could* have said, “It’s not good for man to be alone…” and then immediately created Eve. But like the creative genius that He is, He made Adam wait. God gave Adam a tiny seed of His Master plan and then set Adam on a search for a partner, a help mate, but after hours and hours of naming and searching all he had found was a growing hunger for someone with which to share his life. Someone who looked like him, but different. Someone who sounded like him, but different. Someone who thought like him, only differently. Someone who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh that fit back together perfectly just as a flesh and bone puzzle should. Someone who was “just right” for him.

While my husband and I were writing True Intimacy, I was VERY upset with my husband. I wasn’t happy in our relationship. I was frustrated and angry and hurt. One of the books that I used for research had been written for teens and suggested that they should write out a list of all the qualities of their perfect mate. Well, I was mad at my mate so I decided to make a list of my own. I kept thinking of what my dream guy would be like… you know, if I could find a way to ditch the current one. Except the further down the list I got, the more things I kept listing that my husband had done or was doing! I got to the end of the sheet and shook my head at myself. He might not be the perfect husband, but he certainly was “just right for me”. I realized that I did still love him and that maybe, just maybe I could still like him too. That was four years ago. I look at him now and thank God I didn’t give up on us.

We made it through that tough time, and so can you my friend. Find something, just one thing that you love about your mate and cling to that one thing. Grasp it with both hands, twist your fingers through it and stare at it. Encourage your mate on that one thing, let them know how much it means to you when they do (don’t do) it. But most of all, don’t give up! You can make it through this. Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37), including an impossible marriage. Give yours to Him and see what kind of a message He can make out of your mess.