He hit rock bottom... to later soar.

Friday 1-15-16 (Home in Modesto, California)     

Scripture reading for today:    Gen 37 - 38   Psalm 7   Luke 15

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Gen 41:44-45  Pharaoh also said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." NKJV

Listen, I am the great Pharaoh!  I am making you second in command.  From now on nobody in Egypt can lift a hand or foot without your permission.  NUHV

O.  Joseph had suffered years as a slave and then in a dismal dungeon because of Potiphar’s wife.  Now is his chance to get even.  He could have sent emissaries to capture his brothers and bring them to justice.  He could have risen against Potiphar and his wife.  But instead he gets busy with the job at hand to save Egypt’s population from starvation.  He had earned his doctorate in how to manage the captain of the guard’s home and a second doctorate in managing a prison.  God had been providing him with an education, preparing him to become Minister of Economy for a nation.

A.  I had a rocky start in ministry.  I had just graduated from Bible School and was serving as assistant pastor in a rapidly growing church.  I had started a 30 voice choir and an orchestra, along with the pastor we had reorganized the Christian education program and the Sunday School had grown significantly.  Our youth group was breaking records with great enthusiasm.  Then suddenly in my sixth month with this church, on a Saturday night our pastor requested my resignation letter to be read Sunday morning to the congregation.  Frances and I wept in our tiny trailer house.  Somewhere I had failed.  No explanation was ever given.  But I had unwittingly allowed a disconnect to grow between me and our pastor.  It is probable that our pastor had authentic reasons unknown to me, but we were devastated.  Still we remained as friends with this pastor and family and were later blessed to minister in his church as missionaries.  I had learned a lot from him.  I look back and know that I was still in school.  God was breaking me in, getting me ready for the next step.  We had to move our little trailer to an ugly poverty level trailer park full of alcoholics.  We had hit rock bottom.  Then God performed a miracle and lifted us up out of the mud.  And that is another story.

P.  Lord, Brother Joseph, Frances and I had to learn that sometimes in Your economy the way up is down.  You sometimes reduce us to nothing, so that You can make something out of us.  I needed that first experience.  It was part of my education.  You still had me in school.  In fact, You still have me in school.  Prepare me, Lord, for the next step... even if it is a step down.  I know You are with me and I want Your plans to become my plans.  Amen.

Ralph