Lessons in Adversity

This is a good time to call to mind several lessons we can learn from Jacob’s family and Joseph’s adversity. The first is obvious. No enemy is more subtle than passivity. When parents are passive, they may eventually discipline . . .

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God’s Training Manual

Before we get better acquainted with Joseph, let’s take a quick glance at some background information. It will help if you remember that his biography falls neatly into three distinct segments.

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God Means It for Good

After a lengthy bout with despair, severe depression, and suicide attempts, writer and poet William Cowper (1731–1800) discovered comfort in God’s providence, which led him to write “Shining out of Darkness.”

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God Alone Knows Our Future

The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we realize that we really don’t know what each new day may bring. A phone call can come in the middle of the night shattering our joy. Suddenly everything changes.

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The Tune of Self-Interest

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God for the first time—and sin entered the world—it didn’t take long for them to begin looking out for number one. Enter self-interest.

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The Origin of Self

It’s been my experience that before I can fully conquer any problem, I need to understand the problem as well as possible, especially its origin. To do that with “self,” we must go back, way back.

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Change Your Routine

Following the sixth day of creation, the Lord God deliberately stopped working. He rested. It wasn’t that there was nothing else He could have done. It certainly wasn’t because He was exhausted. Omnipotence never gets tired!

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Relating with Our Friends

After God made man, He observed a need inside that life, a nagging loneliness that Adam couldn’t shake. “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.'” (Genesis 2:18)

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Going . . . Not Knowing, Part One

The statement recurs through Scripture like a repeating telegraph signal on a high frequency radio band. Sometimes faint, barely discernible—sometimes strong, clear. Over and over. Paul made the statement as he was saying goodbye to a group of friends standing with him on an Asian beach. Several of the men wept freely, realizing they would never see the missionary again.

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Idols, Part Two

Yesterday we talked about how the Israelites began to worship what started out as a good thing but became too much of a good thing: a bronze serpent they called “Nehushtan.” We can make an idol out of anything or anyone in life. A church building can become an idol to us, when all the while it is simply a place to meet and worship our Lord—nothing more.

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