"When God gives you lemons, get another God." Written on a dorm locker, this rationale would have given Jesus reason to defect. Although his life was often sour and stinging, he hung in there--and up there!--for us. As the passage above (click on it) reminds us, "...for the joy set before him [, he] endured the cross..." We are that joy! Granted, in our human weakness we sometimes forget and|or are powerless to make lemonade when life gives us lemons. So the example of humanly weak Joseph serves to inspire us. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, the Holy Spirit reminded him that "...God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20). Squeezed for salvation, we ask God to keep our focus on him and his purposes. Deserving as we are of life's lemons--"the punishment that [should have been on us and has] brought us peace was upon [Jesus]" (Isaiah 53:5)--God help us to endure them for his--and others'--sake. Thank God that we get only the consequences of sin, not the punishment for it!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Fruitful focus
"When God gives you lemons, get another God." Written on a dorm locker, this rationale would have given Jesus reason to defect. Although his life was often sour and stinging, he hung in there--and up there!--for us. As the passage above (click on it) reminds us, "...for the joy set before him [, he] endured the cross..." We are that joy! Granted, in our human weakness we sometimes forget and|or are powerless to make lemonade when life gives us lemons. So the example of humanly weak Joseph serves to inspire us. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, the Holy Spirit reminded him that "...God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20). Squeezed for salvation, we ask God to keep our focus on him and his purposes. Deserving as we are of life's lemons--"the punishment that [should have been on us and has] brought us peace was upon [Jesus]" (Isaiah 53:5)--God help us to endure them for his--and others'--sake. Thank God that we get only the consequences of sin, not the punishment for it!
