Monthly Archives: March 2025

Guard Your Heart

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Genesis 39:7-20

Warren Wiersbe entitled this portion of his study on Genesis, Be Authentic, “Overcoming Great Temptation.”Joseph did that. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him day after day, Joseph steadfastly refused her. He showed a great deal of self-control.

Wiersbe quotes Proverbs 25:28: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” I believe Joseph had built walls around his spirit by considering integrity, purity, obedience, and honoring God way before he ever even met Potiphar’s wife.

Proverbs 4:23 tell us “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” I think Joseph was able to overcome great temptation because he was able to overcome gentle temptation first.

It goes back to taking sin seriously. Scripture tells us to flee temptation before it becomes a sin. I doesn’t say just flee the big ones.

My sister tells about a time she and her young son (7 or 8 years old at the time) were standing in line at the grocery. Right at his eye level, there was a magazine cover of a half-naked woman. Before she could say something to her son, she saw him look at the picture, then intentionally turn away. Even at his young age, he was building a wall around his spirit. He was guarding his heart.

You will be tempted in some way today. Are your walls up? Are you guarding your heart?

Hold Your Horses

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Genesis 39:1-6

If you wonder why God would allow Joseph to go through the hardships he faced, wonder no more. Warren Wiersbe in his study, Be Authentic suggests that if Joseph had been allowed to remain at home, the favored and pampered son, hated by his brothers he would not have been fit to fulfill the responsibilities of leading a nation. Joseph had to learn humility, service, hard work, and faith before God could use him in such a significant way.

Think about it. Even Jesus, after being baptized, took forty days in the wilderness before jumping into ministry. Paul didn’t get up from the dirty road to Damascus and start preaching. In fact, it seems he spent time in Arabia being taught by Jesus Himself (Galatians 1), then three years being an apprentice preaching in Damascus before he went to Jerusalem.

Remember John Mark? As a young man he failed completely in ministry alongside Paul and Barnabas. Years later, Mark became an important help to Paul. But he had to mature first.

I think churches make a mistake when they take a new believer and put him or her in positions of authority before they’ve had time to mature in their new-found faith. Sure, they are on fire for the Lord and it’s tempting to think that’s just what the Church needs. But the Church does NOT need ministry based on feelings. In fact, I would suggest that harms the Church more than it helps.

When Jesus gave us His last command, He told us to go and make disciples. He didn’t tell us to go and make converts. Making disciples takes time and effort. But without it a new believer stays an infant.

You don’t put a newborn baby behind the wheel of a car. Why? The same applies to putting a new believer in front of a classroom, or on the elder board, or making him pastor of your church. A baby doesn’t have what it takes to drive the car, and a new Christian doesn’t have what it takes to drive the ministry.

It took years of hardship, forced labor, tough lessons and a growing faith for Joseph to be ready to be used by God. Let’s, as mature Christians, have discernment enough to do the same for the new believer.

They may be excited about their salvation, all in, totally committed to Jesus. But sometimes you gotta say: Hold your horses! There are no shortcuts to maturity. The thing about growing in faith and knowledge of our Lord is that it doesn’t put out the flame, it feeds it. If you are afraid this excited young Christian will lose that excitement if you take time to nurture him, you either are not trusting God, or you don’t really trust the truth of their salvation.

If you are a new Christian, welcome to the family. Let me encourage you to find a mature Christian to come along side you, to hold you accountable, to teach you, mentor you, challenge and encourage you as you learn what being a Christian is all about.

If you are a seasoned Christian, be that person to a new believer. Seek them out. Spend time praying with and for them. Read the Bible with them. Ask and answer questions. Watch them grow.

Then watch them be used by God at just the right time. One day that “Hold your horses” will be “Giddy-up!”

Doing the Unthinkable

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Genesis 37

We can read about Joseph’s brothers and see where their jealousy and hatred led. Their actions against Joseph have no rational explanation and cannot be justified. Joseph was innocent. There is no excuse for what his brothers did to him.

In fact, most of us can’t imagine the heartless actions of the brothers, from plotting to kill him, throwing him into a pit then sitting down to enjoy a meal together as if nothing had happened, to selling Joseph into slavery. It’s unthinkable that someone could treat a brother with such contempt.

But Warren Wiersbe in his book entitled Be Authentic (David C Cook publisher; Second Edition 2020; p98) warns us that all of us are potentially capable of doing what the brothers did. He cites Jeremiah 17:9 that says we have hearts that are deceitful and desperately wicked. We all do.

Newton’s first law of inertia says once an object is set in motion it will continue moving until acted upon by an external force. I think that applies to jealousy, or any sinful thought and feeling.

Once it is put into motion it will continue moving. But like a snowball rolling down a hill, it won’t just keep moving, though; it will grow, it will get faster and move with more power until is gets out of control…

Until!

At any point an outside force can step in front of it and bring it to a complete stop, destroy it, get rid of it.

I think the lesson here is never put that thought in motion in the first place. Recognize it as sin. Repent of it. Allow Jesus to step in front of it and destroy it while it’s still the size of a snowflake. If you don’t, you could be dealing with an avalanche somewhere down the road.

Never underestimate those sinful thoughts of jealousy, hatred, pride, lust, revenge, etc. Put any of those in motion and you will find yourself doing the unthinkable – just like Joseph’s brothers.

Don’t tell yourself that can’t happen to you. That thought might be pride speaking, and that’s something you don’t want to put in motion.

Every Single One

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Genesis 36

This chapter lists the descendants of Esau, the Edomites who were life-long enemies of Israel. I’m sitting here wondering why God included this genealogy in His Word. What can we learn of Jesus here, or of God’s plan of redemption? Since the Bible doesn’t explain the reason, I am left to form an opinion. So here it is:

I am reminded of the name of God spoken by Hagar – El Roi – the God who sees me. We often divide the world into two camps – believers and non- believers, or friends and enemies.

We talk about the “them,” and as a result the “they” lose their individuality, maybe their humanity in our minds.

What I see here in Genesis 36 is the God who sees every individual, that He died for every person, that He knows them by name.

God, forgive me when I lump all non-believers into a group I am separate from, a group I can keep at arm’s length because “they” are not like me. May I see them as moms and dads, sons, daughters, boys, girls for whom Jesus died…

Every single one of them.

They Deserved It

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Genesis 34-35

Rather than repenting of their sinful act of revenge, Simeon and Levi justified the murder of hundreds of men with, “They deserved it.”

It’s tempting to think the same when we hear that guy at work who took credit for your idea is getting a divorce, or when that reckless driver who lives down the street gets in a car accident, or when that childhood bully who made seventh grade miserable for you gets cancer. These days there are some who think people deserve to have their cars blown up, or an assassin’s bullet aimed at a man’s head simply because they have different opinions than their’s. Wanting revenge isn’t a new phenomenon. But it gets a lot of press these days.

Remember when your mom used to tell you, “Two wrongs don’t make a right?” She wasn’t wrong! That scale never levels out. The question still remains: who made you judge and jury?

Bad things happen in this life. There are bad people in the world. There are crimes that should be punished according to Scripture and the law of the land. But there is only one ultimate Judge. And you are not He!

God will judge every individual with righteousness according to His character. Some people will deserve His wrath and the punishment for their unrepented sins. Others, like me and I hope you, will face the judge wearing His own righteousness and hear Him declare that our sin debt is paid in full.

Life is too short to plan to get even with someone, or to even waste time hoping something bad happens to someone who you think has wronged you. It’s not your job to try to balance a scale that cannot be balanced. It’s not your job to dole out punishment to someone who has hurt you.

Honestly, I think the best way to handle the hurt you feel or the wrong that has been done against you, according to Scripture, is submit to God. Take a step back from the situation. Breathe. Pray. And trust God who does all things well. My experience is that when I turn it over to the Lord, I am free. A burden is lifted. Thoughts of revenge are replaced by peace. And whether or not that person gets what I think he or she deserves doesn’t matter any more.

Whew!

In fact, my prayers become, “Lord, Don’t give her what I think she deserves. I pray that Jesus will get what He deserves, and that is her heart.”

In the end, it’s not about what we think anyone deserves. It’s about what God deserves for dying on the cross for our sins… and the sins of the people we are struggling with. He will get what He deserves in the end. And that’s the way it should be.

Happily Ever After

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Genesis 24:61-67

What must she have thought when Isaac lifted her veil, and she looked into his eyes for the very first time? The anticipation must have been crazy. Was Rebekah filled with joy the moment she was actually in his presence, knowing her life would never be the same, that this was a precious forever relationship she had entered?

I anticipate the moment Jesus lifts my veil and I am able to gaze into HIs eyes for the very first time. I can hardly wait to know as I am known, to see and feel His love in a way I’ve never experienced before. I am His. He is mine. Forever.

Isaac and Rebekah have a sweet, cute-meet. But their happily ever after didn’t happen. I, on the other hand, the Church, the Bride of Christ will have our happily ever after: no sin to separate us, no sorrow to put a strain on our relationship, no distractions, no temptation, no guilt or doubt.

…and they lived happily ever after.