{"id":4116,"date":"2022-07-21T10:34:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2022-07-21T10:34:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:34:30","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-38\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-k1l67XGhRaI\/XNwiSn554bI\/AAAAAAAA7V8\/C29SsGTsWHwFsfVG63he2rC8INFlGh9-gCKgBGAs\/s1600\/P9279134.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Burgess Falls State Park, TN<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nCaution, God at work here<br \/>\nGenesis 39: As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with him.<br \/>\nWhen Joseph is sold into slavery the last word to come to mind is \u201cblessed.\u201d Things don\u2019t look like they\u2019re going to turn out \u201cvery well.\u201d Being sold into slavery indicates one&#8217;s being cursed rather than blessed. However, God\u2019s at work here and the first part of the story gives us little indication of what the last part&#8217;s going to look like. While being sold into slavery isn\u2019t one of our common concerns, it\u2019s true that life takes some unexpected and unwelcome turns. The thing is that such events are, in the least, God\u2019s providential will. That is, he isn\u2019t pulling strings, forcing people to do bad things, but he does allow it to happen. In fact, the Lord specializes in turning stuff like this upside down. Because of that, sometimes things start out looking pretty messy, more like a demolition project than any kind of construction. The key in the passage before us today is the phrase \u201cGod was with Joseph.\u201d In fact, that\u2019s the key to the whole Joseph story. It\u2019s almost as though there\u2019s a sign: \u201cCaution, God at work here.\u201d For every setback there\u2019s a more than equal advance. When God\u2019s at work, the end of the story is always \u201cthings went very well.\u201d It may not seem to be that way at any given point along the journey, but that\u2019s how it is going to end.<br \/>\nTake away: We don\u2019t always understand all that\u2019s happening, but when God\u2019s at work, things turn out just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caution, God at work here Genesis 39: As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with him. When Joseph is sold into slavery the last word to come to mind is \u201cblessed.\u201d Things don\u2019t look like they\u2019re going to turn out \u201cvery well.\u201d Being sold into slavery indicates one&#8217;s being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[127,432,439,501],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13751,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4116\/revisions\/13751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}