MONDAY, September 22nd, 2008

Another week of school and a lot of other stuff!! Today is Rachels Birthday so everyone make sure to sing happy birthday to her if you see her at school! Happy Birthday Rachel!

Genesis 40

1 It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker.
3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined.
4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while.
5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation.
6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad.
7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”
8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me,
10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes.
11 Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days.
13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler.
14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.
15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head.
17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”
18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days.
19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.
22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

This is a fairly simple story. Joseph is in prison for something He did not do, yet he trusts God through the trial and that is how He can have such a great attitude even in the situation that he is in. I think it is pretty funny that He walks up to the butler and the baker and says: " You look sad today". Well, I would think they would say: OF COURSE WE ARE SAD TODAY!! WE ARE SITTING IN PRISON!! But Joseph could not comprehend that attitude, because he knew that whatever happened was in Gods control and if Gods plan for his life was to sit in a prison cell, then he would be happy to obey!

Are you like that? Or do you have a conditional love for Christ? Do you love him when things are going well, but blame Him when things are not so well? Maybe it is the other way around, maybe you ignore Him while tings are good, and you turn to Him when things are going bad? Well, neither one of those are the best... We should ALWAYS trust Gods plan for our lives. If we are following God in Holiness then no matter where Gods path takes us, we should be thrilled to be a part of Gods plan.

Well, the rest of the story goes like this: The Chief butler, and chief baker are sent to prison for some reason... When they get in there, they meet Joseph. One day, Joseph notices that they look a little bit more sad than usual. So Joseph asks them what is going on... They tell Joseph, we had some dreams, but we have no one to interpret them.

Joseph sees this as an opportunity to Glorify God! So what does he do? Joseph explains to them that dreams are given by God, so He would tell them what those dreams meant. Well Joseph explains that one of them will go back to work and the other will be hanged.

Joseph made it clear! WHEN YOU GET BACK INTO THE PALACE: DO NOT FORGET ME!!!! Well, They forgot him. But the great part is that Joseph did not get bitter... Joseph got better. He continued to realize that this was Gods plan for his life!

What has God taken you through lately? Is it tough? Well, maybe He is preparing you for something great like He was doing with Joseph. Trust God in everything! If you are far from God, then turn back to Him TODAY!!!!!

He will not let you down!!