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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for God's Gifts

Oh Lord and Master of my life, take away from me the spirit of laziness, cowardliness, lust for power, and malicious and idle speech. But rather give me, throughout the day to come, an ample spirit of vitality and force in your service, to the benefit of your glory and the good of my fellow man. Let me act in humility, patience, and decency at all times, seeing my own error and overlooking the faults of others; and let me always know the presence of your Holy Spirit, to remind me of what I have asked, in the name of my savior Jesus Christ,

Mason Barge 6/27/2014

For Strength and Peace

O  Thou who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from strife of tongues, my holy hill,
Fair is Thy pavilion, where I hold me still.

Back let them fall from me, my clamorous foes,
Confusions multiplied;
From crowding things of sense I flee, in Thee I hide.
Until this tyranny be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;

What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to Thy servant strength, O Lord, and bless with peace.

Benediction

May the God of peace, who declared victory over death by the resurrection of His only Son, Jesus Christ, make me perfect in every thought and act through His grace, that my life might be pleasing in His sight and that I might share the perfect peace that is only possible through Him, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Truth

Genesis 43:26-34 (ESV)

Joseph’s Brothers Meet with Him

When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”

They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!”

Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.”

They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth.

And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.

Notes on the Scripture

Joseph finally allows himself to become touched by being reunited with his family. Benjamin is his only full brother, the others having different mothers. But as Jacob favors Joseph and Benjamin because their mother was the wife of his heart, Rachel, so Joseph is attached to his full brother Benjamin.

he Egyptians were a people like few in history, for they were both isolated and powerful, greatly advanced over the outside world. One might compare them to the Japanese or Incas. Such cultures engender peculiar societies and, often, a sense of racial superiority. Notice that, like the Jews of the future, the Egyptians will not eat with others. Joseph’s brothers are seated at their own table, and in addition, Joseph himself — one of the most powerful men in Egypt — is still an outsider and eats separately from the Egyptians.

There is something to this, because it will soon become important to the formation of the Jewish identity. The Hebrews will be enslaved by Egypt for perhaps 400 years. Possibly God planned this precisely to prevent them from being assimilated by the much larger Canaanite population. As we have seen, Abraham and his descendants have already had frequent encounters with women of other cultures.

But being enslaved in a country where the natives would not even eat with them means that the Jews will be left to develop their own culture and religion. They would not be assimilated in Egypt. No doubt Hebrew women were taken by Egyptian men at times, for such is the way of the world; but even today, a child inherits his Judaism through his mother, not his father, and this matrilineal racial identity could have originated in Egypt; for the Egyptian father of a Hebrew bastard would not be eager to claim the child.

Daily Inspiration

“ Safe In His Arms ”

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