Author: Gary

Let’s run down Joseph’s check list. His brothers sold him into slavery, he has been falsely accused of sleeping with his master’s wife, he has been sent to prison, and now he helps to divinely interpret the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, only to be forgotten about. If I was Joseph it would be pretty hard for me to accept that I had favor in God’s eyes. Yet again we see God molding someone, that he calls his own, by letting Joseph go through suffering. This is the one thing that has gotten my attention the most when I read God’s word. My whole life I have looked at going through hard times and suffering as a punishment from God. The truth is it could be punishment for sin or it could be God molding us into what he wants us to be. If we have a strong relationship with God and we suffer, we tend to think God is mad or angry with us. The truth is we should be looking for what we are supposed to learn from God in these situations. I don’t think we can comprehend or understand fully how much God loves us. He wants the best for us even when we think that there is no way he does. Be someone that can be molded, be someone that can take a punch and see past it, be someone whose faith cannot be wavered. Understand that the relationship we have with God through faith in Jesus is more powerful than anyone or anything in this world. Know this and walk with boldness and authority. The God of the universe is on your side when you choose him. Lean on that fact and know that, as you go through every situation. Love y’all! Have a great day!

Joseph is someone that I look up to greatly in the Bible. His will power and love for the lord is something to behold. He never let the blessings, the favor, or the tests and trials bleed into his choices in life. He always lived in the moment and let God guide him one situation at a time. When he was sold into slavery he never waivered. When Satan tempted him with Potiphar’s wife he didn’t take the bait. When he was sent to prison for something he didn’t do, he leaned and relied on God to get him through it. How many of us could be put in his shoes and not resent God and think God had forsaken or forgotten about us? You would be a better man than me because I don’t think I could do it. Don’t ever believe the lie that blessings freely come because you have a relationship with God. The biggest blessings most of the time come from the suffering you go through. Being able to cling to God through our suffering is what builds and molds us into who he wants us to be. Trusting God through the suffering and coming out on the other side, through his power, is what builds our faith and makes us stronger. Embrace suffering when it comes and cling to Jesus. Also, when life gets comfortable and prosperous keep God in the center. Understand that comfort and prosperity are a gift from God that are not to be taken for granted. Keep God at the top of your priority list always, no matter what season of life you are in. Let him always be God in your life. Love y’all! Have a great day!

This chapter should show us emphatically that God did not come to save perfect people. He came to save sinners. Always remember that Jesus came through the tribe of Judah. The genealogy that Jesus came from was from Judah thinking he was sleeping with a prostitute that was actually his daughter in law. This is crazy! God’s plan was for Jesus to come from the tribe of Judah and Judah’s sons were dropping the ball. His first son Er was married to Tamar but was seen as evil in God’s sight and it actually says “the Lord put him to death.” This left Tamar as a widow with no husband to bear children for. After this, Judah tells his second son Onan to have children with Tamar to keep his family line going but Onan purposely chose not too. This was evil in God’s sight also. When Judah heard about this he thought Onan would surely die just like his first son Er did, because they were both seen as evil in God’s sight. Knowing this Judah told Tamar to remain a widow at her father’s house until his third son Shelah was of age. Once she saw that this was not going to happen, she took matters into her own hands and dressed as a prostitute and slept with her father in law Judah. This is a hot mess of a story! We should see how God can take a broken situation and still enforce his will no matter what horrible choices Judah’s family made. Jesus was going to come from the tribe of Judah whether Judah’s sons wanted to cooperate or not. Judah’s first two sons had opportunities to submit to the Lords will but chose not too. This should show us that no matter if we choose to submit to God or not, his plan and purpose will always prevail. He can take the worst sinful situation and still his will is going to prevail. We can either choose to submit and be attached to his will or we can choose to go our own way. Either way God’s will is going to happen. There is an end game, and no human choices or sinful acts can stop his will from happening. In spite of all the evil and deception in this chapter God’s will still prevails. This is true still today. We still continue to lie to ourselves and think that “Jesus could never use someone as broken as I am” or “Jesus would never want a relationship with someone like me.” We should read this chapter and see that Jesus can take the worst situations and use them for his good. No matter what we do or choose, Jesus is right there waiting to use our faults and brokenness for his glory. The only thing that can separate us from him is ourselves. No matter what we do or have done, Jesus is there waiting for us to give our brokenness to him. Love y’all! Have a great day!

Most everyone has heard of Joseph and the story of Joseph in the Bible. The things you have to recognize and read between the lines here is where everyone stood in this chapter. Reuben the oldest was probably responsible for leading all of his brothers and taking care of all of his brothers since he was the oldest. He also had slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah. So from the very start of this chapter Reuben is most likely on thin ice. Also, it says that Joseph at 17 was responsible for tending sheep with his brothers. The brothers he worked with weren’t just any brothers they were his brothers whose moms were Jacob’s concubines, not his actual wives sons, who were probably looked down upon because of this. Also, Joseph’s mother was Rachel, whom Jacob loved the most. It also says that Jacob loved Joseph the most because he had him at an older age. Long story short, he had a lot stacked up against him for his brothers to be jealous of him and look down on him. Once God gave Joseph a vision, he shared it to his family and it rubbed all of them the wrong way. If the dream was true it meant that Joseph would be over his whole family even his father. This didn’t make sense to anyone and it just made Joseph’s brothers become even more jealous of him. The only brothers who had compassion for him at all were Reuben, who was already on thin ice, and Judah. Reuben was probably trying to hold onto his birthright for what he had done and the other brothers probably wanted Joseph out of the way because they all knew he was the favorite son and needed him out of the way if they were going to have a shot of gaining favor from their father Jacob. So they got rid of their brother Joseph trying to make way for their own paths to glory. It’s crazy how the downfall of man never changes in the Bible. The downfalls of man are always the pursuit of power, women, and wealth. Man falls every time when the world blinds them with these same three things and they all stem from pride. This passage should give us wisdom as men of what to run away from. Genesis gives us history from over 6000 years ago of what tore men down, time and time again, and we still haven’t learned. These same three things still tear men and their families down today. We should read this and it make us want to throw away any ounce of pride that we have and to submit that pride, through obedience, to Jesus Christ. The one who saved us from the punishment of our pride. Love y’all! Have a great day!

This chapter is the epidemy of why some people, including myself, read Genesis and become overwhelmed and give up. Don’t let all of this overwhelm you. Think of this chapter in the grand scheme of things. Even though the details of Esau’s descendants are very important focus on what is going on here. God’s chosen people are being separated from the people that chose to live by their own rule and law. Reading through this genealogy we notice that kingship and succession is not passed down by blood but by something else. Signifying that by one’s own merit and by the choice of the people the kings were chosen in Edom. Not by God’s appointment. God allows this to happen. Also it is important to note that it seems that the Edomites are more powerful and more resourceful than Israel at this time. Time and time again in the Bible, since the very beginning, we see how God presents himself by taking the weaker side and showcases his power through those that keep their faith in him. This chapter is establishing how the Edomites came to be. It was through their own strength and God is setting the scene to show who is truly in control of everything. Following God does not ever mean your blessings will come in riches, in comfort, or in fame. Time and time again we see how he uses his chosen people’s weaknesses and struggles to showcase his own strength. When we are weak he is strong. If we are going through dark and troubled times don’t let this diminish your faith. Always remember the character of God. He just might be setting the scene in your life for his power to be displayed. When the world swallows us up as Christians that is when God shows up. Time and time again we see that God has a tipping point and he will only allow his faithful followers and his sons and daughters to be overcome for so long. God loves us more than we could ever imagine and he uses our hard times and suffering to get our attention and to show us and others how real and how powerful he truly is. That’s why we should always keep the faith, stay prayed up, and always live our lives expecting God to move because he will. Love y’all! Have a great day!

Chapter 35 is a transitional chapter in Jacob’s life. In this chapter Isaac is dying and before this happens and the covenant fully moves on to Jacob and his family, God has a process. First, before God presents anything to Jacob and his family he tells them to leave all of their false idols behind, to purify themselves, and to change their clothes. This is signifying repentance and acknowledging that God is the one and only God in their lives. Once this is established God formally changes the name of Jacob to Israel. This is huge. It is huge because we need to realize what is happening here. For God to be able to work through Jacob and establish his covenant with him, Jacob has to acknowledge who the one true God is and has to let go of anything else that is a God in his life. God through Jesus presents us the same opportunity. Before God can do anything in our lives we have to first repent and acknowledge who he is by putting our faith in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. We also have to let go of anything else that is a God in our lives. This could be money, work, hobbies, material possessions, or anything else that we put over God in our lives. Until this is established we still belong to this world. When and only when we repent and acknowledge Jesus as Lord, he will save us and give us new life. We become a new creation just like what happens here with Jacob. It is imperative for us to realize who we are and who God is for us to move forward with him. It is the first step before God leads us and adopts us into his family. Full submission is required. It is impossible for us to have one foot in and one foot out. We must freely choose to completely leave our old selves behind and freely submit ourselves to God through faith in Jesus. God has not changed and the way to be adopted into God’s family has not changed. It will always and forever run through true submission to Jesus. Love y’all! Have a great day!

This is a hard chapter for me to comment on. Me having 2 sisters and 2 daughters of my own makes me become enraged and angry just reading it. To tell you the truth I would have probably reacted just like Simeon and Levi did which was wrong. Even though what Shechem did was wrong vengeance is the Lords. What they did wrong was take God’s covenant sign that he had given to Abraham and they weaponized it. They also didn’t just go after Shechem, they killed every male of the Hivite tribe for what Shechem alone had done. This was very much excessive. They took matters into their own hands and took the vengeance that was rightfully God’s for themselves. I hate to say it but this is probably one of the most evil tactics that Satan stil uses today. We live in a sinful world and Satan used this disgusting situation to defile Dinah, use Simeon’s and Levi’s anger and rage to kill and destroy the Hivite people, and also cause corruption in God’s covenant people. It is a powerful blow to all sides when this happens to a woman or any individual for that matter. It takes extreme faith to get through these types of situations. I could only imagine what kind of faith it takes to get through these types of situations because I don’t believe I have it. That is why we always need a small group of guys that keep us accountable around us at all times. When these types of terrible things happen we need someone who is on the outside looking in that is thinking clearly to help guide our decisions because it is near impossible to tackle a situation like this alone. If you don’t have a group of Godly men in your inner circle it would be wise to find some. We live in a sinful and broken world and we need all of the help we can get as men. It is impossible to walk this world alone without it smothering you. Love y’all! Have a great day!

The last time Jacob saw his brother Esau he had deceived him of his birthright and his blessing. I could only imagine the fear Jacob had when Esau came towards him with four hundred others. Jacob knew he had done this and offered some of his blessings that God had blessed him with to find favor from his brother. Esau tells him that he doesn’t need Jacob’s offerings because he has enough but Jacob kept insisting until Esau accepted his gifts to him. This is a true picture of reconciliation and is necessary for every heart. If we have wronged someone or deceived someone it should always lead to reconciliation in the end. Jacob had everything he needed and wanted. He could have kept his pride and found somewhere else to go with all of his possessions and live in peace but he chose to follow God’s direction. I could bet my whole paycheck that the last thing Jacob wanted to do was face his brother Esau. Esau was bigger, stronger, and had every right to seek vengeance against Jacob. Jacob knew this and went anyway. We must never let our past or any tension between us and others keep us from following God’s will. This happens a lot to me personally and I know it happens to a lot of others as well. If you have wronged someone or have been wronged by someone, true reconciliation needs to happen before you can move forward. That fear or hate that we hold towards someone is just another of the many ways Satan uses to separate us from God. If you have anyone in your life that occupies your mind and heart in this way it is imperative you seek to reconcile with them. They might just be the one that Satan does not want you to have a relationship with because God will use it. Love y’all! Have a great day!