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Genesis 35

Nov1

Good morning y’all. Happy Saturday 🙂
Today we in chapter 35 of Genesis. Here we see God instruct Jacob to return to Bethel where He will bless him; Rachel dies after giving birth to Benjamin; and Isaac dies at the ripe old age of 180.

Be blessed 🙂

I’m gonna focus today’s blog on verse 1-5.

God instructs Jacob to return to Bethel to make his home there and build him an altar. Jacob knew that if he was going to obey God, he had to first of all set his family aright. That is, make sure they are all in right standing and pleasing to God. So he instructs his family to get rid of all their idols, to make themselves pleasing to God and put on new clothes.

I want to expand a bit on the instruction he gave to his family in verse 2

Jacob said to his family and to everyone else who was traveling with him: Get rid of your foreign gods! Then make yourselves acceptable to worship God and put on clean clothes. (Genesis 35:2 CEVUS06)

1) Get rid of your foreign gods – that is, get rid of everything that stands in the way of your worship to God. Anything that takes the place of God in your life is a foreign god or idol. It doesnt have to be a graven image you bow to everyday. The enemy is too smart, he doesnt bring graven images cos he knows we will easily recognise it, rather he send those idols in subtle manners.

For example, that tv programme that you cant miss. Wherever you are or whatever you are doing, once it’s time for the show, you drop everything to watch it, yet you figure its okay for you to miss church because you say God understands! (By the way, I used that line, “God understands” too 😦 and I still used it yesterday cos I was trying to justify why I would rather stay at home than go to evangelism at church. I now thank God I finally figured out what matters most to me. I will be going for evangelism after this blog has been posted :)).

Another example could be the boyfriend you can’t live without: Oh! He has to be the 1st voice you hear and the last every night; it’s like if you dont talk to him, you don’t feel complete, yet God hasn’t heard your voice in months!

Friends lets be real today and ask the holyspirit to reveal to us anything in our lives that represent a foreign idol. Let’s ask for the grace to let go of them and get our priorities back in order. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to lay aside every sin or weight that easily besets us. 

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 KJV)

2) Make yourself acceptable to God – Romans 12.1-2 tells us that we should offer our lives a pleasing sacrifice to God, the kind he will find acceptable. I particularly like the message version of this verse because I feel it makes the verse very practical.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 MSG)

3) Put on new clothes – You can’t put new wine into old wine skin. If you want new wine, you have to get a new wine skin. Same with our relationship with God, we can’t come wanting him to fill us when we are still full of old junk. There will be no space for the new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Colossians 3:12-14 now tells us that since we have a new life as per 2 Cor 5:17 we need to to dress ourselves with the clothes God picked out for us.

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. (Colossians 3:12-14 MSG)

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. We thank you for your word. We ask holyspirit that you reveal to us anything in our lives that represent a foreign idol. We ask for the grace to let go of them and help us get our priorities back in order. We offer our lives as a pleasing sacrifice to you. Thank you Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed Saturday 😉

***With God all things are possible***

Genesis 34

Oct31

Good morning y’all. Thank God it’s Friday :). Today we in chapter 34 of Genesis. Here Dinah is dishonored and her brothers take revenge by killing all the men in the town.

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

There are 4 main points I picked out from today’s chapter.

1) Control our desires (V1-4)
Dinah was raped by Shechem and the next thing we are told is that he felt a strong attraction to her, fell in love with her and wooed her.

But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw Dinah, he seized her and raped her. But then he fell in love with her, and he tried to win her affection with tender words.(Genesis 34:2-3 NLT)

I can’t wrap my head round this..a selfish act led to love? Could it be that he had lusted after her for days, months or even years and when he finally got a chance to get her alone he took advantage. He probably genuinely liked her but couldn’t control his desires for her. His desire for her consumed all his senses and led him to do the unthinkable.

Lesson here is that if we don’t control our desires and hand them over to the Holyspirit, they will rule us and lead us in the wrong direction. I’m reminded of the scripture in Genesis 4:7b that says “Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master”.

James 4:7 also says submit yourselves to God resist the devil and he will flee. The first step is submission. We need to submit those desires that are unruly to the leading of the holy spirit and let him direct us in the right path to go.

2) Hold your peace (V5)
Jacob heard about the rape and he held his peace until his sons came back from tending the flocks in the field. The key words here are ‘held his peace’.

And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come. (Genesis 34:5 KJV)

Jacob didn’t panic or react in anger. Rather bible says He held his peace. Could it be that Jacob knew God was in control and will avenge the dishonor that had been brought upon his family by Shechem.

Lesson here is to learn to be peaceful even when the storms of life are raging. Isaiah tells us that God will keep in perfect peace he whose mind is stayed on him.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (Isaiah 26:3 KJV)

Peace is not the absence of storm, it’s knowing that even in the storm God is in control, knowing that he has the power to still the raging storm. So you sit still and let him do his work on your behalf.

3) Don’t repay evil for evil (V13 -29)
Dinah brothers on the other hand were very grieved about what happened. They decided to take matters into their own hands and avenge the wrong done to their sister. They deceived Hamor and Shechem to believing that as long as they are circumcised they would now be able to marry their sister as well has have other intermarriage’s. After the men got circumcised they went into town and killed all the men including Shechem and Hamor.

I ask myself if God is okay with their action. Looking at certain scriptures in the bible I get the answer to my question.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the lord. (Romans 12:19 NLT)

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:21 NLT)

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. (Exodus 14:14 KJV)

Those scriptures clearly tells me that God wasn’t happy with the actions of Dinah brothers. Even their father Jacob wasn’t.

Lesson here is that when we are wronged, let’s not act based on flesh. Let’s ask God to help us react to the issue in a manner that would be pleasing to him. Trust God to fight your battles and take revenge on your behalf.

4) Communicate your plan to others who are involved. (V30-31)
Another thing that struck me was that Jacob never said anything even when his sons came back from the field. He left the decision to his sons to make. Verses 11-13 suggests he was present when his sons made the circumcision proposal to Shechem and his father Nahor. He had a plan of holding his peace but he didnt communicate that to his sons. Perhaps if he had told his sons about his plan of allowing God fight this battle, maybe his sons won’t have gone ahead and killed the men. Lack of communication led to the boys thinking it’s okay to go kill. In their eyes they felt there father wasn’t doing anything about the situation.

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Holyspirit we ask you help us submit our desires over to you, that we will not be led by our flesh but will yield totally to your leading. Help us remain in peace even when storms are raging all around us. As you promised in Isaiah, help us keep our eyes fixed on you and not on the storms. Help us hand over our battles to you, to trust you to fight and avenge for us. Thank you Lord. We love you and give all the glory back to you.  In Jesus Name. Amen

Thanks for joining today.

I am blogging through the bible with Good Morning Girls. Check us out at http://www.goodmorninggirls.org
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Tomorrow we will be reading Genesis 35.

Pls note as from November we will only be blogging a chapter of the bible on weekdays. For those following the daily reading plan for blogging, below is a copy of the reading plan from Good Morning girls for November starting from Monday.
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I’ve decided I will still blog on the weekends (this will help me keep the momentum going 🙂 )…probably blog about my devotional for the day 🙂 or any other topic i feel led to discuss 🙂

Have a blessed friday and remember to hold your peace even in the face of raging storms 🙂

***With God all things are possible***