BIY - Genesis 36-38

Yes I am still here. Been a busy few weeks and a busy couple more to go but I am trying to get back to a regular reading schedule. On a side note I just returned from serving as an Adult Table Leader on a Chrysalis walk. Got to spend a long weekend with some great men and youth of God and saw some great things happening the lives of some young men.

On with the show:

Quick Thoughts:
1. I am so glad I got to read the lineage of Esau. Probably will come in handy sometime later. :)
2.Silly Question where was Reuben when Joseph was sold to the Israelites?
3. Music Break: Jacob's Name is Israel - Apologetix
4. If Joseph was Jacob's favorite why did he rebuke him?
5. Time for the biblical family tree. I missed who Judah is.
6. All kinds of skeletons in the closet revealed in Chapter 38.

Detailed Thoughts:

1. Okay yes I can be sarcastic at
times...Get over it!

2. Where did Reuben go? Back to find Jacob? I will be interested to finish the Jacob story and see if more is revealed about where Reuben may have gone.

3. If you haven't heard Apologetix you need to go to their website and check them out. They are the Weird Al of Christian music and they are excellent musicians.

4. Interesting that Jacob basically sent Joseph right in to the Lion's Den so to speak. One would think he would know that the other boys despised him and yet he sends him out to them anyway.

5. I will have to go back and see where Judah fits into the family tree. I don't remember who he is.

6. Who says the bible is without scandal? I guess prostitution is a really old profession.

A Great Perspective on Life

An old fraternity brother of mine is currently undergoing chemothermapy treatments for cancer. Attached is something he wrote last week. His perspective on life humbles and amazes me and I look forward to his next update to see what he has learned in addition to following his progress. Here it is:

"It sometimes strikes me as funny (funny-weird, not necessarily funny-ha-ha) when I’m praying and asking God to keep my side effects minimal: here I am, small dude in the small town of [XXXXX], totally caught up in my own little world, and I’m asking the Almighty – the God of the Universe – to take a moment and help me out.  It strikes me weird because I’m just a tiny cog in a vast machine, and with all the stuff – good and bad – going on the world, here I am just pretty clueless as to how good I really have it, and how wonderful our Savior Jesus Christ truly is.  But it also is truly humbling to realize that it’s this Mighty God – Alpha and Omega – who doesn’t leave his answering machine on to pick up my prayer or say, “Wait a bit, Jevin, I’m busy in Europe right now.”  He hears my prayers and knows my needs & desires, even before I have made them known in prayer.  It’s so humbling, and yet it’s also hard to fully grasp what it means to have such a close connection to God.  It’s better than the red phone that called the Bat Cave directly."

I don't have too much to add. God asks us to come to him with every desire of our heart and he hears every one. My life tends to go more smoothly when I do bring my desires to him. So why don't I do it more often? Pride? Self Reliance? We are all children until our glorious arrival in heaven as believers. We need to act more like children and ask our Abba Father for the things we desire rather than say "I can do it myself." The one instance of a father not teaching his children to be self reliant. I think now onto my own son (3 1/2) and how many times I say you can do it yourself. But our God says you don't have to do it yourself, I will do it for you and with you if you only would ask.