Joseph's life has been an encouragement to me

Recently I encounter one article regarding to life of Joseph, son of Jacob. Let me shared with you below.

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result.” (Genesis 50:20 NIV)

Joseph’s life was anything but peaceful. It was complicated by youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Sold into slavery by jealous brothers. Thrown into prison on false charges. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the “Great Engineer” behind even the worst of circumstances.

In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, “You meant it for bad; God meant it for good.”

The theology packed in that statement is astounding. “God meant it for good” means:

1) You can accept the past – No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle – or too big to be worked for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) Just ask Joseph! Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.

2) You can embrace the present – There’s no need to play the “what if” game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you’re free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, “Wherever you are, be all there” – not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that’s where his grace will flow.

3) You can look expectantly toward the future – Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned that you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.

What does this mean?

· No matter how bad things get – God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing – no disaster, no delay – is bigger that his ability to turn it into something good and godly.

· Thank God and let go – Thank God that he is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future.

§ Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past.

§ Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today.

§ Praise God that he can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God’s grace and redemption.

· Look for God’s hand – Walking by faith means you see God’s hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust his ability and his willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people’s motives. In other words, it doesn’t matter why someone hurt you, God still can transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good.

· What will you allow God to change? – There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life that, as far as you can tell, was “meant for bad.” How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what he wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When he answers, do it.

Trip back to Malaysia ( September 2007)

I just came back from Malaysia. It has been another ordinary trip to me. Within my expectation, before my dad drop me at bus station this afternoon. Again he asked me to tithe less to the church. He said that reality is reality, if you earn less, how can you tithe 10 percent of your gross income. Like our neighbour, who is christians, they only tithe 100 plus ringgit to the church despite they earn 4000 ringgit per month? Son, you need to consider your family, your future, and you need to buy a house in Singapore eventually, so please be realistic. Consider my suggestion seriously....

Everytime I go home I will hear something like that from my father. This month, quite amazingly, I did not talk back to my dad. In my heart I know that he loves me, that's why he needs to persuade me to give less to church. Moreover, he thinks I spent too much time in ministry and neglect to meet up with my friends outside the church and visit some relatives in Singapore. I thank God that he reminds me of those issue. I think I really need to plan my time and resources more carefully. Thank God for Huanjie, he gave me a book talk about how to manage your resources effectively. Thanks brother.

Dear Jesus, I know that you have heard what my father said before I come back to Singapore. Lord, thank you for giving me such a good parent who care about me and love me so much. Lord, I know that you are not confined in 4 walls within Nexus Auditorium. Lord, you are in reality and you are with me always until the end of time. Lord, thank you for giving me a peaceful heart to accept what my father said to me and what he reminds me. Lord, help me to be a good earthly son to my earthly parent and Lord, help them to see my decision and my conviction to give to you faithfully. Lord, I know that you will provide whatever you think is enough for me. Lord, I believe that my faith in you is being tested at this moment of time. Lord, help me to remember your promise in Malachi 3:10. Lord, I believe that you will use me to be a great testimony in front of my family. Thank you Lord, I pray all this in your mighty name. Amen.

A little bit update about my life

The very first thing that I want to thank God is His answered prayer on last Monday. Last Monday morning I was quite nervous and afraid because my boss was going to send me to site to do some supervision job for one month.On that morning I pray to God and ask for His help because I still have a lot of work to do. If I was sent to site, I would have no time to do my office work already. After that, in the late morning, my boss suddenly told me that I did not need to go to site on that day, the date was changed to Thursday morning. I was so excited at that time and give thanks to God in my heart.

However, I was sent to site still. Personally I quite hesitant to do supervision at site. The reason I change my job is to avoid site work and concentrate my time and energy to learn design. The first two days there was quite uneasy, there were a lot of unfamiliar faces. Every faces looked stress and want to scold people at any time. The only good thing about site work is that I can off at 5pm daily. I thank God for that.

Over the weekend I carried a unhappy heart because of my site assignment. I know nothing about the cladding work and my boss wanted me to supervise the job. Somemore the contractor is very experience in this industry, surely I will be facing some pressure from them if I do not perform well. However, during the service, God impressed upon my heart and he let me recall what Boy has shared on Saturday. Boy has shared about the story of rose, which determine to be the best roses in the garden. God encourage me to perform my best wherever the position he put me in. I was so encouraged at that time and I gave thanks to Him again and again.

Today, my boss called me and ask me to back to office to rush up the project that I always mentioned to some of my CG bros and sis. Everything is quite ok but the deadline will be on Wednesday. I have confident that I can finish by that time. God, you are so wonderful to me. God, help me to give thanks to you as well during the hard time. Amen.