Jan 18 - Joseph has some dreams

Good Morning everyone! I did my reading last night but am blogging this morning. The Internet and everything was shut down and after a day with the energizer bunny child and the other one feeding every couple of hours and she's not sleeping well I was to tired to fire up the computer....etc:)
This is all about Josephs dreams and how it gets him into trouble. It talks about when Joseph was 17 he tended his father's flocks working for his half brothers the sons of Jacobs wives Bilhah and Zilpah. Now Jacob loved Joseph the most and gave him a special gift-a beautiful robe. This caused his brothers to hate him because their father loved him more than the them. One night Joseph has a dream. "Listen to this dream," he said to his brothers. "We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!" His brother responded, "So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?" Now they hate him even more!
Joseph has another dream and again tells his brothers and his father "The sun, moon and eleven stars bowed low before me!" So the old mans wondering what the dream meant but his brothers are just furious. I think I would have kept that dream in my pocket!

Josephs brothers plot to kill him but instead sell him off into slavery then killed a young goat and dipped Joseph's robe in it's blood. The sent the robe to their father with this message: "Look at what we found. Doesn't this robe belong to your son?" So now Jacob thinks a wild animal has eaten Joseph and he is very distraught. "I will go to my grave mourning for my son."

Judah leaves home and gets caught up in this bizarre turn of events that causes him to sleep with Tamar (whom he thought was a prostitute) the woman he had arranged for his first born, Er, but he had died because in the Lord's sight he was a wicked man. This is after his other son Onan was given her to produce a child but he didn't want to so whenever he be ready to go Old Faithful on her he would aim his flashlight at the ground if you know what I mean, so not to impregnate her. So Judah's encounter get's her pregnant with Twins and when they are being born one of the babies sticks it's hand out, they tie a string on it's wrist to say "This one came out first." Well like all children he had another plan. He pulled his arm back in and his brother came out first Perez. Then he came out Zerah. Not sure of the significance of the string event but we'll see......

At what point in history was family therapy brought into play???

In Matthew today the Pharisees now state that Jesus must get his powers from Satan to be able to cast out demons. Jesus has, of coarse, a phenomenal reply "Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive. And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said." He goes on to lay down parables about trees being identified by their fruit..good or bad. What fruit have you produced lately? I like to think I'm doing a little part to produce good fruit everyday even if it's as simple as teaching my daughter something small.

Final thought is from Matthew 12:38-40 One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority." But Jesus replied, "Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights." What the heck were they looking for? Whatever it would be I'm sure wouldn't satisfy them. He's already performed numerous miracles and they still didn't believe.....He should have kept it simple and pulled a rabbit out of a hat, maybe do sweet card trick or cut one of his disciples in half and put them back together:) Instead he's doing all these little things like raising the dead and casting out demons with the big show still to come......