Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 46:1-4 wherein we see retirement-aged Jacob set out for one last adventure under the blessing of the Lord.

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.  And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here am I.”  Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.  I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

Remember Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings who at the end of his long, full, and exciting life was ready for that one last adventure?  Well, the elderly Jacob was probably about ready for retirement when he found out that Joseph was still alive in Egypt.  His dear wife Rachel had died many years ago, his sons were grown and able to carry all the load of manual labor that shepherds knew, and despite the hardships and sadness he had encountered, he was at least in the land that God had promised to him and his fathers.  Can you hear the deep sigh of acceptance for the way that everything had turned out?  Little did he know that another adventure was about to begin and that he would enjoy an entirely new set of blessings and great provision for he and his family.  Surprises can come to us at any stage of life’s journey.

But even with the excitement of knowing that Joseph was alive, and the questions that he may have had about how such could even be possible, Jacob did not forget who he was in the Lord.  God had brought him to this point, spoken personally to him along the way, gotten in his face in an all night long wrestling match, and now responded with favor to his worship in Beersheba.  God had another message for his servant that couldn’t have come at a better moment: “Don’t be afraid; I will be with you.”  It had to seem strange to Jacob (and all seventy members of his family) that he was leaving his home that God had specifically promised to him and placed him in.  As he set out on this journey that all wisdom and desire seemed to indicate was good for both survival and joy, the questions must have arisen.  “How does this fit into the big plan?”  “What if the journey is too much for me?”  “Am I really being obedient in heading to Egypt?”  Enter God.  Jacob was reminded from the present encounter that he was neither leaving God nor his faith back in Canaan by taking this trip.  God wasn’t done with Jacob, and He wasn’t done with His people’s possession of the land Israel was heading out of either.

Has life taken any interesting turns for you in recent days?  You don’t have to be at retirement age for that to happen.  Are you trusting that God is with you wherever you go, whatever the stage you’re in?  Are you taking time to worship, as Jacob did, in the midst of whatever path or journey you’re on?  If such moments of devotion have fallen by the wayside, it might be good to evaluate whether or not you’re headed in the direction you should be.  Just as Jesus (who was Himself in every way a sojourner during His ministry) took time to get away from everyone and reconnect with His Father, pause in the adventure and seek the Lord today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 45:4-7 wherein we see Joseph share with his brothers the kind of perspective that only God can give.

So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.  And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.  And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

All of life is about developing perspective.  Even if there is a high degree of the mundane in our daily schedules, other new events are taking place around us.  And even the fact that we’re performing many of the same repetitive tasks puts us in a place where we must ask the question, “How am I supposed to look at such?…What am I to do with it?”  If we never seek perspective, we’ll end up frustrated, uncaring, and uncommitted in any number of things.  Joseph had had a good twenty years to build this perspective and he knew Who to run to in order to see his crazy life in the right way–this passage reflects such in every manner.

Notice his tenderness toward his brothers.  He wants them near, not to harm them, but to inform and reassure them.  They had acted wickedly against him many years ago; they had made his life extremely difficult.  But before their hearts completely melted with fear over what their ruling brother might do to them, and before they berated themselves over their past sins, Joseph shares with them the bigger picture that he has come to understand.  God sent me before you to preserve life is his confident statement and wise assessment.  My goodness, even though we might be able to agree with him as we have followed his story and are able to see all that transpires after this, nobody (apart from God) would have blamed Joseph for keeping that bit of perspective to himself to let those brothers learn it on their own.  However, we receive so much from his example!  Joseph, like Jesus, saw the purpose in his suffering: the relief of others, the continuation of Israel, and the display of the glorious sovereignty of God through it all.  Nobody could have argued with Joseph at this point for he rightly points out that this is still the front end of a famine where everyone but Egypt has already run out of food!

Joseph was able to look at the big picture and say, “God did it…ultimately, God did it.”  This is what he would continue to communicate and this is the perspective that we see throughout the Scriptures when God’s sovereignty is explained.  Will you and I receive it?  Will we take that step back and see the good plan of God in the midst of a muddled world or will we only struggle and strain and despair and seek idols for satisfaction and shake our fists at God?  It’s easy to answer that question when things seem mostly good and intensely difficult to do so in the midst of great pain.  We may need to be that person who opens our arms to others like Joseph did, saying, Come near to me, please and testify to God’s goodness and control over all our lives.  Or we may need to be on the receiving end of that in this moment.  Whatever the case, there’s no good way around it; we must start building perspective today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 44:32-34 wherein we see through Judah a picture of the coming Lion of the tribe of Judah.

For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’  Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.  For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Judah was far from the perfect model of integrity and self-sacrifice throughout his life, but in this moment he shined as much as the best of men.  To appreciate the change that has taken place in Judah, we need to look back at some of his past actions.  In Chapter 37, it was his idea to sell Joseph into slavery (which was, to be fair, perhaps a little better than the others’ idea to simply kill him).  Back in 38, we see him living as a slave to his sensuality on multiple occasions.  But more recently we’ve seen him promise to father Jacob that he would keep Benjamin safe, assuming full responsibility if any harm came to him.  And now, in the present text, we see him doing everything that he can to make good on that promise.  It’s reasonable to assume that he was horrified at the thought of introducing another sibling into forced servitude, especially one so close to his father’s heart.

Judah’s words before us here are ones that should grip Christians everywhere.  Please let your servant remain instead of the boy… He was choosing to give himself up for the freedom of someone else with a motivation of love for his father and brother.  Sound familiar?  Ever heard of the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5)?  As Jesus was approaching His time of death on the cross, He told His disciples (whom He had also called his brothers), I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father (John 14:31).  And then in John 15:9, He made clear His own love for them: As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Judah had a mission to fulfill of keeping Benjamin safe and bringing him back to Jacob, and he was willing to do whatever it took fulfill that mission.  This is a fantastic picture of what God would bring to the world through his line by way of the Messiah.

These verses should move our hearts to praise.  We should first of all be so thankful for the reminder of what Christ did in fulfilling his mission on earth and the subsequent salvation that we can have because of this.  We should be blessed with the knowledge also, once again, that God works through and uses imperfect people like Judah…imperfect people like you and I.  Are we growing?  Are we living lives of sacrifice with joy set before us like Jesus?  Every day is a good day for refocus; let us engage in such today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 43:29-31 wherein we see the heart of Joseph and have our attention turned to Christ.

And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!”  Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there.  Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.”

Any resentment that Joseph may have been harboring in his heart was quickly running out.  So much has led up to this scene and he has had a good amount of time between visits from his brothers to think through how he would continue to treat them.  Two big things seem influential here in Joseph’s softening.  He had just found out that his father was still living and well.  This was the one family member that he knew he trusted, one that cared tenderly for him up to the moment he was sold as a slave by the rest of the family.  But then there was Benjamin, who was in a sense the last great reminder of his dear mother, Rachel, who died as she was giving birth to him.  Benjamin was his only full-blooded brother and the only one that had taken no part in introducing Joseph to his many hardships.  God be gracious to you, my son! was the final phrase that led to his loss of all control and the finding of a place to let out those penned up emotions.  This was a moment of great healing for Joseph as compassion flooded his soul and the years of hurt flowed out with his tears.

Joseph though, as real and as feeling as he was, showed himself to be a man of strategy and patience.  Many of us at that point would have run to our family and poured out every emotion that had been bottled up, but not this man.  He cleaned himself up, put his game face back on, and stuck with the meal plans.  They would continue to sit on edge while he blessed them, favored Benjamin, and acted the part of mighty Egyptian ruler.  The time for revealing his true identity was yet to come.

All of us deal with emotion-filled situations differently and it can be difficult to know what the proper response is when we find ourselves in such places.  The first thing we need to note then is that there is much grace to give to one another within this area.  But the example before us of Joseph is a helpful one.  He knew that it was OK to let his emotion out even though it was a pretty inopportune time.  Doing so didn’t mean that he was weak or less of a man; he had done plenty to prove his strength prior to this.  At the same time though, he was able to regain his composure, stay the course, and complete what he had set out to do.  This all sounds a bit more psychological than biblical, but in reality, Joseph’s example here should move our attention onto God and His character, specifically as it is revealed through Christ.  We know that Jesus experienced an enormous range of emotions, expressed them freely, but always continued the path of faithfulness.  So let us in our admiration of Joseph have our souls knit more closely to our feeling and faithful Lord today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 42:1-4 wherein we see the merging of sub-plots and the pain that yet lingers from their earlier dividing.

When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”  And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.”  So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.  But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.

Like a good movie flashing between multiple sub-plots, attention turns again to the patriarch Jacob, the father of Joseph, and what will one day become the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jacob’s life has been carrying on during all the years of our observation of Joseph who finished his growing up years in Egypt, rising from the position of a slave to the second-in-command, growing his own family, and bringing incredible blessing to the foreign land he resided in.  Jacob and his family though had yet to feel the blessing of Joseph; they were simply trying to survive during the famine.  But then his instructions to his sons lead to the merging of the sub-plots: “Go to Egypt and buy food.”  It might have been that Jacob had even heard of Joseph’s work in that country, only the name that he would have been aware of was Joseph’s Egyptian one: Zaphenath-paneah.

We have to wonder what kind of relationship Jacob had with his sons at this point.  It might be that he suspected their fowl play (or at least irresponsibility) in the disappearance of Joseph.  It’s likely that over all these years his connection with them had been strained.  His words to them seem a bit sharp and condescending.  Why do you look at one another? Furthermore, his decision to keep Benjamin at home even though he was now likely a full-grown man shows that he wasn’t too keen on having him in their company.  It sounds as if Benjamin is the new favorite, and Jacob undoubtedly knew that his other sons, perhaps rightly so, resented this just as they did when Joseph was favored.  No, he needed to keep Benjamin with him just in case.  All of this is really a sad sight.  Throughout the years, the sons of Jacob had never come clean with their dad concerning the Joseph incident, and Jacob still hadn’t come to that point where he could share his love for his kids equally.  Pain and guilt lingered in everyone’s hearts.  The conversation among the brothers later when they were being put on the hot seat in Egypt reveals a bit of this: In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us (V. 21).  “How stupid we were” had to be the common thought.  Thankfully, this is not the end of the story.

But we can learn some important lessons in the meantime.  Are there long-time harmful patterns in our lives that need to be broken?  Are there people in our lives that we need to come clean with?  Are there burdens that we’ve carried that need to be released?  We never know what kind of healing might take place if we come to one another with humility and admit our faults.  Silent division between loved ones need not be continued through unconfessed sins.  And what about our foundational relationship with God as we consider these things?  It might be that before we can come to others, we need to come before Jesus, releasing our worries and burdens to Him, asking Him for the strength to then come clean with others.  Know the joys of reconciliation and God-given freedom today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 41:38-41 wherein we see Joseph hit it big and are reminded to be faithful in the little things.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”  Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.  You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.  Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.”  And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

One step forward, two steps back, three steps forward, four steps back, 100 steps forward.  This is a bit of what Joseph’s life looked like.  His childhood years were ones of great promise, followed by disaster, followed by opportunity, back into great hardship, and now finally exalted even beyond what he might have imagined his own grandiose dreams to ever indicate.  Now it’s certainly not the case that we’re supposed to see Joseph as some kind of a wonderful and successful hero (he himself would have been much opposed to that!), but there is something about his life during all of his ups and downs that we should look to emulate.  This is a man who was much like the first two servants in Jesus’ parable about the talents.  They were faithful with what had been given to them, and the master was then pleased to entrust far more to them.  Jesus told each one, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much” (Matthew 25:21,23).  Joseph was obedient to his father, faithful in Potipher’s house, trustworthy during his imprisonment, and would now show himself responsible as manager over an entire country.  This is a man who did not make his often troubling circumstances an excuse for half-hearted living.

As we consider this though, let’s be sure to be honest about how tough things were for Joseph at many points and acknowledge how difficult things might end up for us.  The reality is that Joseph was both punished and rewarded for righteousness.  When he was listening to his father and checking up on the work of his brothers, he was abused at their hands.  When he worked hard for Potipher, he earned a spot as head servant.  As he resisted intense sexual temptation, he was falsely accused as a pervert.  And for showing himself trustworthy in prison, exhibiting kindness to his fellow prisoners and willingness to (with God’s leading) help Pharaoh, he was elevated to the powerful position we now find him in.  And we must note that Pharaoh’s attention is directed to God in such, which is Joseph’s greatest victory in the moment of his promotion.

You see, this is what it means to walk according to righteousness.  Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?  But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed (1 Peter 3:13-14).  We must always remember that, though positive consequences regularly come for the good that we do, our lives as Christians are to be ones of faith in and love for our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  The 100 steps forward that Joseph experienced after many hardships might never look the same for you and I during this lifetime, but what all who are found in Him will experience one amazing day will be of the sort that is far more glorious than the best promotion here.  Be faithful in the little things today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 40:6-8 wherein we see an unlikely character fully engaged in the work of ministry.

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.  So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?”  They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

One of the misconceptions that we sometimes have within Christianity is that the work of ministry is something that is primarily done by pastors or other church leaders.  The Bible speaks something very contrary to this: And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11).  Jesus actually builds His church by putting the leaders in place to help the rest of the body live lives of ministry.  Of course, this work of pastors and the like is ministry work, but you get the point.  Take a look at Joseph here in this text.  If anyone could have said that the work of ministering to others should have been done by someone else, it would have been him.  Falsely accused and in prison with a couple guys that actually had stepped out of line, nobody would have given Joseph a hard time for keeping to himself and worrying about his own problems.  But that’s not what we see with Joseph.  He observed his fellow prisoners in a troubled state and tenderly asked them why they were hanging their heads!  What a guy and how providential that the great dreamer would be caged up with those troubled by their dreams.  It’s likely that these men, the former chief cupbearer and chief baker for pharaoh, would have had access to those in the kingdom who had claimed the ability of dream interpretation.  How much better that they would actually have Joseph, a man of God, on hand!

At this juncture, Joseph could have left God out of things and just asked to hear their dreams, but this is not a guy ashamed of his Lord or a seeker of self glorification.  Joseph expresses that he is God’s representative and mouthpiece, a sharer of God’s wisdom and not his own.  He is not only about to help them understand what has been perplexing them but is witnessing to God’s perfect knowledge at the same time.  Joseph is still, after everything that has transpired in his life, living for God’s plan and not his own.

Now as we look at this account, there are two positions that we might find ourselves in.  We may be perplexed about what is happening in our lives and are looking for meaning in the midst of mystery.  For such a one, the message is, “Look to God for the interpretation.”  That might mean talking to someone that you know who is a follower (or fellow follower) of Jesus as Lord and so is directed by God’s Spirit.  And for those who are modern-day Josephs with great trust in the King, there is a great reminder to speak with love and wisdom into the lives of those in need.  It’s time to be about the work of ministry today.

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 39:7-9 wherein we see the honorable Joseph resisting temptation because of his God motivation.

And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”  But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge.  He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

Recently a famous golfer issued an apology for his damaging and irresponsible personal behavior, sharing a bit of his faulty thinking as he was engaged in these acts.  He recalled that he thought he was entitled to do what he wanted after working so hard for so long and being rewarded in many ways for doing so.  We can all understand that way of thinking to some degree.  At the end of a busy week we might experience the desire to simply have what we want, to engage in something that we feel will give us a little relief.  Perhaps we struggle in this area when it comes to food, TV, sports, movies, etc.  It’s not that those things are bad in and of themselves, but we might be tempted to abuse them.  Really, it was the same with the golfer I mentioned and his sexual sins.  It wasn’t wrong for him to want that pleasure, but he should have enjoyed the intimacy at home with his wife alone.

Notice the interaction here between handsome young Joseph and his master’s wife.  Potiphar was an important person in Egypt and so probably had managed to get a good looking lady at his side.  It’s likely that he was tied up a good amount of the time, and since he trusted Joseph to manage everything while he was gone, how easy it would have been for single Joseph to let the well-oiled machine of the household run on it’s own for an hour and take a corner room with a woman who was salivating over him.  Talk about temptation!  But Joseph resisted day after day for two big reasons we see here.  He first respected his master and apparently trusted him to set good rules in place.  Potiphar didn’t worry about anything while Joseph was around and didn’t put any restrictive access on him except for one thing: Mrs. Potiphar.  She was like that forbidden tree in the midst of an entire garden of holy pleasures.  That was the first, and I would argue lesser, reason for Joseph’s resistance.  The ultimate one is what sets Joseph apart from so many others that we observe in the Scriptures.  Did you hear what he said?  How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Above and encompassing everything else, Joseph resisted temptation because of his God motivation.  We can address it this way: Why did Joseph ultimately stand strong?…because of God.  This is incredible and fits in so well with what we observe in the rest of the story about Joseph.  In this chapter alone we see him multiple times live with a kind of integrity that God smiles at, an integrity that had to be based upon faith, and that God rewards by putting him in places of honor in the most unlikely of circumstances.  O how we cannot miss this foundational element of Joseph’s life!  O how we must learn this same God motivation today!

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 38:24-26 wherein we are reminded of how our sins find us out and are challenged to live with integrity.

About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral.  Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.”  And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”  As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.”  Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.

The Israelites were told by Moses many years later as they were given instructions about entering back into the land of Canaan that if they were disobedient, each one could be sure [his] sin [would] find [him] out (Numbers 32:23).  Well, backing up again, this had been a very bad season for Jacob’s son, Judah.  Oh, he had been enjoying himself in many ways as he sought to do things his way and satisfy his lusts.  But through providence and Tamar’s planning, he was about to be found out.  Thankfully, what we end up seeing in him is an attitude of humility and repentance.  Tamar was a girl who was desperate and hurting.  Two of Judah’s sons had her as a wife and each had been struck down by the Lord for their wickedness.  Shelah, the third son, was promised to her but never given which put her back in her dad’s house to mourn as a widow indefinitely.  She must have known Judah’s weak spot though and was able to, with her face apparently covered the entire time, be taken aside by him as a prostitute.

His sensual secrecy was really all but over at that point, for his sin was very soon to find him out.  Tamar’s actions were dirty, but God used them to bring her a bit of justice and Judah under great conviction over his faults.  Just as when Nathan confronted King David through a pwerful back-door approach to expose his wickedness, so Tamar makes everything inexcusable for her father-in-law in this instance.  We see such things happen all around us today to “respectable” people in the lime light.  Adultery, gambling addictions, embezzlement, and the list goes on and on.  Each one is usually practiced in secret until somebody speaks up or forgets to cover his tracks.  The problem though isn’t just something that happens among the heavy hitters in the world.  Although they might face unique temptations in some of the areas mentioned, we simply don’t hear as much about the same stuff taking place among us commoners.  But that doesn’t mean we won’t face consequences for our sin.  That doesn’t mean we won’t hurt and disappoint many people (not to mention our Lord Jesus who was crushed for our iniquities) when our dark secrets are exposed or drag us into something even more terrible.  Let us learn a lesson from men like Judah.  Let us remember that nothing is ultimately hidden; from our thoughts to our words to our all-out wicked exercises, their invisibility is an impossibility.  Let us thank God for His wonderful forgiveness through the work of Jesus and live with integrity today.

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Over the past few days, while I have been sick *and forced to be quiet* I have had a lot of time to think and reflect.

I think we may have played into the enemy’s hands (not meaning to), but none the less I fear we have.

Consider this ~

The last few years, the main focus of the church has been much talk of the rapture and most people seem to believe in a pre-trib rapture.

The government continually talks about global warming, climate change, the end of the earth’s resources, weather patterns becoming more severe….blah, blah (insert more of the same).

There are those who continually talk about the Mayan calendar and the end of all things in 2012.

Then there are the Planet X people, who believe the 10th planet (that comes through our solar system every 3600 years) is due to come through causing great calamity and unparalleled catastrophe.

Now consider how all this would sound (and effect your judgment) if you were a teenager ~

Looks like the end is coming….

Will I ever have the opportunity to marry, have a family, a career?

Will there even be a world left for me to live in?

Teenagers (and everyone else) are constantly being bombarded with talk of the END of the world as we know it. It has to be depressing.

Where is their hope? If they are a Christian, yes, they have the rapture, but without also being deeply rooted in the Word of God, will that sustain them and give them the hope they need to be overcomers through Christ? Seems, even many of the Churches teach and preach more on their individual doctrines rather than teaching the basic fundamentals of the Word of God.

(And what if the rapture doesn’t take place?)

Psalm 11:3 warns us, “If the foundations are destroyed,What can the righteous do?”

(I am not going to go into the fact many of the newer versions of the Bible, leave out over 200 verses, thus giving a different meaning to certain sections of scripture.)

We need to consider ~

Are we giving our children and young adults “hope” or are we adding to their discouragement? Because, I believe if they are not planted on a firm foundation, we are only adding to the problem.

For those who do not have the hope of the rapture, nor the foundation of the Word to guide their lives, the world is basically giving them no hope! What affect will this have concerning their decisions on a daily basis? Why try to achieve? Why do the best they can? For what? In their thinking, if the world is going to end in a couple of years, why should I wait – ’til marriage? Why shouldn’t I – drink, do drugs, etc.? Why should I obey laws? What difference does it make?!

I believe our youth are continually hearing discouragement and despair. And I believe this plays right into Satan’s plan. After all, he came to “steal, kill and destroy.”

I feel like I have bit off a big chunk of meat that is difficult to chew. I would love to hear your comments. Does anyone else see the problem here?

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