“The Christian life works that way sometimes. We don't always know how beautifully God is working in our lives until His plan is zoomed in and we see it for what it is.” Eugene Peterson

Sunday as you tune into Grace Online, I will have us look backwards at the hatred and jealousy of the brothers and then forward to Joseph for the times of prison and then famine in Egypt. As Eugene Peterson said, “we don’t always know’ – I would say we actually often don’t know! God is infinitely wise and equally powerful so as mere mortals, to try to figure out what God is doing is impossible. Who could have imagined the evil plans of Joseph’s brothers to take his life would in God’s timing be the method of saving their lives and the lives of their entire family! Our story Sunday has a happy end because Joseph, through his time in prison and under false accusations, had learned to wait on God and trust in a divine plan – unlike his great-grandfather (Abraham), grandfather (Isaac), father (Jacob) and the 10 brothers (excluding Benjamin).

Sunday is also a two-part message since the hard part is forgiving and the harder part is forgetting! How did Joseph find the grace to forgive and forget the evils done to him directly by his brothers and all the pain caused him since their betrayal? Yet, as a model of God’s love and the forgiveness we have in Christ – that is our story! Please join us online Sunday and follow this great illustration of love, forgiveness and divine forgetting!

“The voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.” DL MOODY

Pastor Mike

BTW – you may have wondered how an all-knowing God (omniscient) could ever really forget anything – you are correct, He does not. The truth is that God remembers the payment for our sins and the forgiveness of those sins. So, what is forgiven and forgotten is the penalty laid to our account – the same penalty applied to the back of Jesus and seen in the scars of the Cross. That should get you ready for Easter!