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What was it about bones that made Jacob and Joseph both want theirs buried in the promised land? In Genesis 50 Jacob is embalmed and it is quite the process. Later his corpse is taken to be buried in daddy's tomb. Why wasn't Rachel buried there?  When Joseph dies at the end of the chapter his body is put in a coffin in Egypt. However, before he dies he makes his family promise to take his bones to the promised land. Why was that so important and why didn't he get buried in the pm just after death?  280 years would go by between the coffin and Moses coming into the Egyptian picture. Eventually, actually 80 years later Moses would remember Joseph and take his old bones back to the promised land. As one author puts it, remembering the nation's past agony of slavery as well as trusting in God to keep the promises that he had made about a return to the promised land. God is faithful. Bones don't need to travel but the trip was symbolic of God's liberty. 

Genesis 37 is the beginning of Joseph's story. This chapter starts in verse two with these words, "This is the account of Jacob. Joseph..."  The chapter tells the story of how Joseph got to Egypt to save the nation of Israel eventually. But, even before it was a nation, it's a cruel story of jealousy, envy, and hatred. These are all synonyms for "evil."  There are several interesting facts that I learned from my reading. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver and then sold again in Egypt. I doubt that the Ishmaelites sold him without earning a profit. So I imagine that eventually, he was sold for 30 pieces of silver. I'm just guessing. It fits nicely with Jesus' story.  There was a lot of robe ripping going on. The text doesn't say that his brothers tore Joseph's robe, but I hardly think that the bad brothers stripped him gently. Instead, I imagine that they ripped his robe off. Then Ruben rips his robe when he discovers that Joseph had been

Genesis chapter 35 is interesting. God moves Jacob from Shechem to Bethel. He also changes his name from Jacob to Israel. God reiterates the Abrahamic covenant and protects Jacob as he makes his move.  What I see as interesting is the amount of time that God spends with this weird man called Jacob. Just the chapter before this one two of Jacob's son murder all the men in a village. Then just after God tells him that he is going to be moving, Jacob cleans house of all of the foreign gods that his family has accumulated. What? How was that?  This guy, one of the Patriarcal leaders, is a real piece of work. The phrase, How odd of God to choose the Jews, comes to mind.  Yet we see God, time and again, working with the Jews. They are always doing the wrong thing and God gives them another opportunity to do right. This whole scenario kind of reminds me of me. 

Abraham has his son Isaac, who was the promised one. He was to be Abraham's heir and the one through whom the blessing would come. Having been a miracle child himself, he had a slight problem. He was now in his early forties and still single. If he didn't find a wife the Abrahamic covenant would never be fulfilled and Jesus would not be born.  It was a crucial moment when Abraham called his servant to swear that he would find a woman for his boy. The oath was binding only if and when the discovered bride came back to Abraham's tent. If she didn't, the deal was off.  We know that she did come back and ended up having twins, Esau and Jacob. However, there is a couple of verses that drew my attention to an important principle for us to think about. Look at 24:6 and 8,  Genesis 24:6 "Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. 8 If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take

God told Abram to leave town and walk until He told him to stop. I always wonder how that conversation went at home? "dear we're moving. Where to babe? I'm not sure yet but I'll tell you when God tells me more. Ok?"  I remember when I believed that God was calling me to the mission field and I called Dawn over to the kitchen table. She knew that we were in trouble by the look on my face." What's going on?"" Well, I've been thinking..." We hear nothing from Sari in this account in Genesis 12. We just see a big move. From home to nowhere in just a few days. Life would never be the same. The family was being left behind. And all for what purpose? So that Abram could prove his obedience to God. God ends up promising Abram a land, an offspring and a blessing, which in the end Abe never gets.  Well, he did get the offspring and he was blessed in many ways. The land promise wasn't fulfilled until Joshua's time. Like Noah, I tend to put

Was Noah looking for grace? This grace that he found was what seemed to be the "saving" kind of grace. At times it seems that we put Noah on a pedestal and think that he deserved to be saved because he was such a good guy. However, if we do this, we make what Noah did his saving grace. As though he was saved by his works.  Granted, Noah and his three sons were an incredible team. God gave them a job, and they did it. Their story is so ancient and has been told so many times, that we fail to understand the impact and reality of their work.  A few years ago my wife and I visited the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. If you haven't been there, you should go. It will help you understand the gargantuan task that Noah and his family took on. I am amazed at the immensity of the project.  Standing in the shadows of that structure it will hit you, "how did they do it?" That ship became a monument to the faith that Noah put into God's command. God told Noah to build, and Noa

We find ourselves in quite an unbelievable dilemma with our new national leader. I cannot bare to watch his town hall meetings even knowing that all questions will be softballs. It seems that the poor guy can't really put ten words together without saying, "Come on man!" or "I I I I" or "we we we we".  How did we get to this place in our history? It has been a slow but seemingly sure process. We began to eliminate God from our schools and TV shows. We now wonder why our government is headed to the toilet. It is quite obvious that God is allowing us to have our own way. "Who really is in charge" seems to be the question of the day.  Has God lost control? Definitely not the case. He is bringing judgment to our land. This doesn't need to be the end of the story for believers in Jesus Christ. Now is our time to share with people who want some answers. We may not be well received but that is what happened when Jesus was here, right.  Live righ

The debate has always raged about whether pharaoh was stubborn or whether God made him stubborn. The answer to this age old question is, yes. It really doesn't need to be a debate, because God says that he would harden Pharaoh's heart. Earlier in His conversation with Moses, God gives an interesting perspective of what He does when he says, "Isn't I who makes rich and poor, the seeing and the blind? " God makes one person rich and another one poor. He makes someone with good vision and another one blind. Why?  It may seem unfair to you. How did pharaoh have a choice? The deal was already done before Moses arrived in the ruler's palace. Again the answer would be, correct. This dilemma continues today.  We see most people these days as lost souls going to hell. They may be religious or atheists, but they are lost. Some believe that if you preach hard enough that some of these will be saved. However, the more the gospel is shared the less it seems that it is heed

The Bible is a sword that can pierce a stone heart. It is a weapon that can defeat a defeated foe. It can be an offense or defensive tool. We must know it to be able to use it. Do you know it? 

This past year and a half have been quite the seventeen months. We've seen things that we would have thought impossible just eighteen months ago. It has been quite a ride ad a tragic one for so many. Have you lost someone close? Our situation puts a different spin on the "Moses and the ten plagues" story, doesn't it. We can't imagine a virus so powerful that every single family in the whole land lost someone. And this after the other nine plagues had devastated the country. The Nile to blood flies in the eyes and every other orifice, hail the size of small cars, boils, and flees. Frogs up to the belly button, and then there was the darkness and locus and lice. The death of the firstborn was finally the straw that broke Pharoah's heart, and he still grudgingly let the people go.  We see so much government corruption these days surrounding the COVID virus that we can sympathize with Pharoah's ministers as they saw their country and lives being destroyed by a

Do you ever build mountains out of molehills, imaging things that you think will happen that never happen? It is a type of protection mechanism that we use to guard against failure. We hate to fail, don't we? Yes, we do.  Imagine yourself a stutterer who has lived in the desert for 40 years talking with sheep and desert-dwellers. Your social skills may have diminished over the years of isolation. Then, out of the blue, you have an encounter with God who wants to send you on an impossible mission. He is talking to you from a burning bush and wants to use you to rescue people who have been slaves for 400 years. Does that sound the least bit plausible to you? From our perspective, it might be easy to side with Moses as he comes up with several good excuses as to why this thing ain't a-gonna work out too well. However, we have read this account so many times that we know what will happen, and sometimes we don't side with Moses as being quite astute in his argument. We think, &q

  A strange thing happened in the Inn Reading in Exodus 4 there is this bizarre scene. Look at it and see what you think.  Exodus 4:24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met (Moses) him, and sought to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. 26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. What is going on here? My word. This is the only time that we see a woman performing circumcision. And it seems to happen in such a strange way.  God commands Moses to return to Egypt to begin the process that would lead to the exodus. Thus, the 400 years of slavery were about to end in an exhibition of God's power over an array of Egyptian gods.  As Moses is returning, he and his family stop at a rest área. Then, out of the blue, God gets angry with his chosen liberator and wants to kill him. But Zipora springs into

My miracle-working property manager Amie had a quick answer to my loan problem. She said, “I have used Jim to get my ten loans. Here is his number. Give him a call.” This was the ray of hope that I needed to keep going.  I sent an email to Jim, a loan officer at a local company, and within seconds, we talked about new possibilities. Jim was amazing. If I had a question, he would answer within minutes or seconds if possible. Then, for the next several weeks, he would guide me through seemingly impossible hurdles and hoops, each time his encouraging words kept me hopeful.  If you have never been through a loan process, it is quite an experience. Underwriters want to know everything about you, including the number of hairs on your head. Well, not really, but they do require a lot of information. After months of failed attempts, we were finally getting somewhere. But, when all was finished, we had ... $133,000 to work with! By this time, the houses that Jonathan had found for me months ear

All of them? All SEVEN? How on earth would that be possible?  Jonathan, my friend Terry’s son, had blown me away with this proposal that I buy seven rental properties all at once. But then explained something called “cash flow” and how that after all was said and done, I would see $2,500 a month in cash to be used for future investments. It sounded like fascinating news, but what he said next was what stopped me in my tiny investment tracks. All you need to put down on these properties is $133,000. So where would I get that kind of money? I then started to pay attention to the YouTube guys and their instructions about finding the money. One way for me was to seek what was called a HELOC or a Home Equity Line of Credit. Another way was a Home Equity loan. So I began to call around to see when I would borrow on the equity in our house. I called my Credit Union, where I had an account for over forty years. I called Chase, Flagstar bank, and even a local bank in Traveler’s Rest SC, where I

1973 challenged a couple of kids were to get into real estate. One of those kids was me! The guy that gave us the challenge was my big brother, who had just gotten his real estate license, unbeknownst to us. I was afraid of buying a house all by myself, so I called my friend Dan and asked if he would be interested in the investment business. He was, and we pooled our $2400 buck, $1200 each, and bought a duplex.  The place was old and pretty ran down. Total rent was a whopping $360 a month. Dan and I kept the duplex for, coincidentally, a couple of years and then sold it to invest in other things. I don't know what Dan got into, but I put my minor prophet into a $13,000 place that became Dawn and my first family home when we got married in 1975. In 1977 we sold that place and bought a more extensive three bedrooms one bathroom place in Oxford.  In 1981 we sold and moved to our forever home. It was a very nice three bedroom one and a half baths with a two-car garage and a nice sized

 Ya Know when you read something and think that it is weird, but deep down, you know that you are weird? You know that you must be the weird element because the text that you are reading is a classic, or something that has passed the test of time.  This phenomenon happened to me this morning while reading /listening to Genesis 49 where Jacob blesses his boys. Why didn't he bless Dina? Oops. Off topic.  Jacob's blessings, to me, seem like the ramblings of an Alzheimer patient. They are all over the place and seem to not have much rhyme nor reason.  The note in one of my study bibles tries to make some sense of the tome by stating the following: 49:4 The oldest son was supposed to receive a double inheritance, but Reuben lost his special honor. Unstable and untrustworthy, especially in his younger days, he had gone so far as to sleep with one of his father's concubines, Jacob could not give the birthright blessing to such a dishonorable son. I laugh a muffled laugh at this no

I have tried to help the Christian music here in Brazil. The Lord allowed me to find instruments in the States and bring them back as donations to our tiny church in Sorocaba. All instruments that I was able to bring were good quality student pieces. Over the years we brought around 30 different instruments.  Just now I was able to pass that blessing on to another church about two hours away. They need instruments yet as always, they are very expensive for poor quality pieces.  Some of the instruments are still at our former church and are played every church service. It is very rewarding to see kids and teens grow to love good music. That last statement brings up a touchy topic. What exactly is good music?  My pastor once said, "I can't explain good music but I know it when I hear it."  That is a seemingly vague statement but is also about the way that I see things. In church, music can be such a sticky topic that it can split that organism. Yes, I meant to say organism.

Joseph was the baby of his family of nine brothers and one sister. Daddy really loved him and even went so far as to express that love in special ways. Joe's brothers took note and wanted to kill the kid.  He was saved by his oldest brother Ruben who convinced the crew to chuck the kid into a shallow well. However, as luck would have it, while Ruben was off somewhere the nine decided to market the brat.  Being sold into slavery is a nightmare scenario, however, as luck would have it, Joe was bought by a powerful and wealthy man. Joe quickly demonstrated that he had been worth every shekel. He demonstrated leadership qualities, he was handsome and willing to work.  However, as luck would have it, he was later betrayed by his boss's wife because Joe wouldn't sleep with her. Imagine that!  Now in prison for something that he didn't do he ends up in charge of the place. He eventually tells the meaning of a couple of dreams that important men had had. However, as luck would

Genesis 47:15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, "Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone." There are several events in the Bible where the money comes to mean nothing. This account in Genesis 47 is one of those. God sent Joseph on ahead of his family in a very unusual way so that he would be there for them in the future. He had to suffer for about 15 years to be in the right place at the right time.  The Egyptians were so hungry that they had spent all of their money to buy the bare necessities. But the funds were gone! But, they knew that their money was worthless, and they were willing to do anything to get what they needed. So, they gave all of their animals to Joseph, Pharoah, to provide food for their families. But, did you ever wonder why they didn't eat the cows? They must have been sacred.  I have never gone hungry in my 68 years that you can see by looking at my fat tummy.

Genesis is the book of first things. First look at God, first man, woman, marriage, murder etc. We look at the universe revolving around one family in Adam and Eve. The population grows and becomes rebellious and God reduces the surplus population via a flood of epic proportions.  Eight people are saved and become a type of Christ in that aspect. Humanity grows once again and becomes rebellious and this time God confuses the languages. Man separated to populate the earth but the Bible focus is once again on one man and his sterile wife. Abraham and Sarah will be the beginning of the Jewish race and nation.  God chose Adam and Eve, Noah and Mrs Noah and Abraham and Sarah for specific reasons and purposes. None of them because they deserved his attention. God used people to fulfill his plans and his will. He prepares and uses normal people like you and me. Each of the already mentioned list of people were frail and failed. Learn from them. Realize God's choice to use you and do your

Genesis 19:1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.   Lot is another puzzle. He is Abraham's nephew and comes into a pile of wealth when he chooses the well watered plains as his new home. Or it seems that he has robbed his uncle Abe blind when he takes that land. However, just after that episode, God promises it all to Abraham.  Lot goes directly to the two worst possible choices to raise his family, Sodom and Gomorrah. He started out by "pitching his tent toward Sodom" and in the above text he's one of the community leaders. "Sitting in the gateway" in that culture was the same as saying that he had become a leader in the city.  The question here is, how does a leader of a city that God destroyed with fire and brimstone come to be called righteous, again in the book of Hebrews? Two God sent angels have to literally d

 Genesis 23:1 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. Sara does not seem to have much to say during her few Bible appearances. Finally, however, she becomes the mother of the nation of Israel. She is sterile, old, and a doubter. She gives her slave girl to her husband to make a baby and then gets steaming mad when Hagar gets pregnant. She wants to kill her and ends up kicking her out of the house.  She lies about being Abraham's sister, and when God catches her laughing at his "you're going to have a baby" news. Thus I don't understand the author of Hebrews when he says that Sarah, by faith, was enabled to give birth. To me it seems like a forced faith. She doesn't seem like a model wife or mother.  That is where we should be REALLY encouraged. We aren't model parents or Christians either, are we? We do stupid stuff an

Genesis 22:2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you."   An ugly message showed up on Abraham's answering machine. "Abe it's time to offer a sacrifice. That will be your only son."  Now remember that Abe and Sarah had waited 100 years for this kid. He was a teen now and the promised one. Sure Abraham had tried to run ahead of God's plan and had his first boy by a slave girl named Hagar. However, the real blessed son was Isaac. From him would come another son named Jacob and then the twelve tribes etc. Etc..  But just as things are beginning to look like they might work out, God sends this strange message, kill the kid. Sacrifice him to me. Prove that you really trust me.  So, Abraham decides to pull a "Jonah" and runs to Tarshish. I am no way going to sacrifice my only son! That's absurd!!  But, that's not what

We see Abraham lying at times. He twice told people that his wife was his sister. He was worried that someone might kill him because his old wife was so beautiful. In the text that I read today, he comes into territory ruled by Abimelek and tells the great fib. Not too long afterward, the king takes Sarah into his harem.  Lately, I have become interested in real estate investing and have learned quite a bit in the last few years. One crucial lesson acquired was that I need to treat investing as a business and not have too many sentimental attachments. Years ago, I would rent with a "charitable" mindset. I kept the rent low on my only rental because I was "helping people (friends) out." I kept that rent low for 20 years. For those years, that rent never moved from $650 a month.  Granted, we could keep the property and barely pay the maintenance and taxes, but the rent was low. It wasn't until I turned that property over to a property manager that I realized what

 What's your nickname? Brazilians have so many nicknames that many people aren't known by their real names. How would you like to be called, Giggles?  That would be a laugh, right? What if I told you that an important Bible character was named, Giggles? Who would you guess it was?  I'll tell you. It was Issac. Abraham's promised son and heir. Isaac was promised to Abraham when Abe was 90 years old and Sarah was 80.  God waited another 10 years before he came through with the punchline and told the couple that they would soon have a baby. As they heard the news they both laughed because they couldn't believe that it would happen. Sarah was hiding behind the tent door and heard God tell Abe that a baby was coming. She laughed to herself but God caught her in the act. He asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? She denied that she had laughed. But God didn't let her off the hook. He went so far as to give her son his name, Giggles. God can do what he says that he

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.   Do you know what the future holds for you? If you are sick with a terminal disease you might know that you don't have many days left to live. However, even then you don't know what the future holds. That is because the future belongs to God and not you.  When God uttered the a above words to Israel the scene was bleak. We often hear these words quoted out of their context and think them so lovely. But these words were spoken as Israel was being taken into a captivity that would last for 70 years! This plan that God had for Israel would only see its fulfillment in the following generations.  You talk about a long term investment! This was it. This entire generation would pass from the world scene and into eternity without ever seeing their promised land again. They serve as a warning for you and me. When God's pla

  Psalm 71:5 For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. We like verses that start like this, don't we? They comfort us and help lift us. They declare where we have put our faith and for how long we have trusted in our mighty God. However, if we skip the first four verses of this psalm, it would be like jumping into the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” at the fourth verse. We miss a lot in that jump.  So, look at what the author says starting in the first verse. 1 In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. The author uses similar terms to describe his life walk. He trusts Jehovah God, so he will not be confused. When we know God, we will find many confusing aspects of his being and his word that are impossible to resolve. God is infinite, and we are finite, so it is only normal to be confused. However, we have the resource of his Holy Word to guide us away from the most confusing aspects of life. The more that we know God, the

  Have you ever felt useless? I mean, like really worthless. Have you ever had to talk yourself into understanding that God loves you and made the ultimate sacrifice for you? God gave his son that whoever believes in him (Jesus) will not die but will have eternal life. Ever hear that? The problem with us is that we are finite beings. That means that we had a beginning and are headed toward an end. Thus our finiteness gets to us at times, making us feel like just another number or IP address on the internet. When we begin to focus on ourselves and our littleness, it is then that we can feel worthless. What am I good for? What do I do well? How could I ever make a difference? And on and on it goes.  In one way, we could say that we are worthless. In light of human history, how important am I? How is history different because I exist? However, in another way of looking at this dilemma, we could say, “God loves me.” Wait, God, who is Almighty and eternal and omniscient, loves me? That is a

Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act. 28 Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back tomorrow, and I'll give it to you"— when you already have it with you. How far are we supposed to go when it comes to giving to others? These days, where people are out of work and companies are closing because of the pandemic, it can be difficult to judge between a real need and an imagined one.  You might want to re-read this text because it doesn't say anything about giving money. However, money might be a part of the equation. The text also specifies to whom the good should be given when it states, "to whom it is due.”  The other day at an outdoor restaurant, a teen approached me asking for a hand-out. He looked to be about 18 years old and was very dazed and dirty. I quickly shook my head "no" to his plea for help. After a few minutes, I went to talk to the small group of people from which the teen had come. Th

The title could be a scary thing or a really cool thing. The scenario would depend on the goodwill of the kings. Usually in Bible times kings seizing anything involved maiming, death, or deportation. In Genesis 14:11, 12, we see "The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions since he was living in Sodom." Lot had a choice when Abraham told him to choose where he wanted to live. Lot chose Sodom. By this account, he lived in Sodom and later would become a part of the city’s leadership. So, when Sodom was attacked Lot and his family were carried away with the rest of the population because they were Sodomites. Isn't that nice? The attacking kings saw no difference in Lot that made them respect or treat him differently than the locals. So Lot was seized with the commoners. A commoner in Sodom was a tremendously wicked thing to be.  We get caught in sin as we p

  Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. Genesis 11:1 Oh, the bliss of this thought. When we moved to Brazil in January of 1997 and began our language acquisition, I prayed for the gift of tongues. My rationale was that, since God had called us to serve him in Brazil, he could surely give us the language gift.  Now, this might seem like a funny request for a Baptist to be making. However, I was desperate! Trying to undo what God had done so long ago seemed like an impossible task. I even went so far as to ask my Portuguese teacher if I had to use all of the little words that lay scattered among the more prominent words on the pages of our language textbook. She said "yes" with a sly smile.  In Genesis 11, Moses recounts something that changed history and was the consequence of man’s stubborn heart. God had just destroyed the entire human population for their wicked and irreparable way of life. Now, just a short time after Noah died, they were back at it aga

Genesis 5:28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed." 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. Where did the phrase" Close, but no Cigar" originate? I looked on the site theidioms.com for the answer. Here is what I found.  "The phrase... originated in the United States, likely during the 20th century or earlier. It alludes to the practice of stalls at fairgrounds and carnivals giving out cigars as prizes. (It) would be used for those who were close to winning a prize but failed to do so." So, you are at the basketball toss stall,, and there is a giant teddy bear that you want to win for your girlfriend. You get three chances and are a great shot from the free-throw line, so you shoot with confidence.  However,

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Gen 3:21 I have always heard the following explanation of this verse.  Because Adam and Eve had sinned, they died spiritually. They also lost the right to be in the Garden of Eden and were cursed in other ways. For example, they had made clothes out of fig leaves, but God sacrificed a lamb; thus, God shed blood and made clothes. This sacrifice of an innocent lamb symbolized what Jesus Christ would do in the distant future.  Is this what you have heard? I don't know; it seems like this interpretation is stretching what Moses wrote in the above text. The text says that  God made clothes for Adam and his wife from skins.  We see no blood, we don't know what kind of skins, nor can I imagine God making an animal sacrifice. Did God have to skin animals to make these clothes? Or could he have just made them like he had everything else in the universe just a little while earlier?  To think that this se