Sunday, Home and Two Important Sermons

Bitter cold and windy weather followed me across the country all week.

Yet, coming home, even in this weather and road weary as I was, was wonderful. I always give thanks for safe traveling. This was a superb trip: lots of hiking, prayer, some good company and a good friend for much of the time. And it's always fun to wander around in this great and vast, vast country.

And now home.

But with a twinge of sadness that Laura is not here anymore to listen to tales of my adventures. I miss her.

Today, Dr. David Jeremiah continues his series on Joseph who suffered as much as any man in the Old Testament: sold to slavery by his brothers, falsely accused of adultery with an Egyptian woman and thrown into prison. Yet, because he had a strong relationship with God, nothing could do him in and he continued to rise to the top in everything he did and wherever he was placed. In the end, he rose to second-in-command in Egypt under Pharoah.

Not bad for a little Jewish kid abandoned by his brothers and thought to be dead by his bereaved father.

But he remained under God's watchful protection every step of the way.

Present problems are often training grounds for future leadership positions. Right behavior isn't always rewarded promptly and sometimes we must suffer terribly for it---and still refrain from bitterness. Not an easy road.

But all things work for good--ultimately--to him or her who love and obey Christ. Though things often don't always work out the way we think or plan.

The life of Joseph should give us all hope and perseverence.

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A second semon I'm posting is today's at McLean Bible Church. Lon Solomon talks about doing things our way verses God's way here.

It is well worth noting that Solomon uses an example of prayer at the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787 and a speech advocating continued fervent prayer by Benjamen Franklin in ending the gridlock at that convention, so that the country could be successfully founded. Many say it was one of the most important turning points of the convention.

Our nation was founded on and by the Grace of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through the power of prayer.