Dreams That Test and Try You

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Genesis 42:8-9
⁸ Although Joseph 
recognized his brothers, 
they did not recognize him.  
⁹Then he remembered his dreams 
about them and said to them, 
“You are spies! 
You have come to see 
where our land is unprotected.” 






I found a little treasure I had not noticed before while reading Genesis 42 this morning. In verse 9 it says Then he remembered his dreams about them...  You may not be familiar with this story it start in Genesis 37. Joseph is the 11th son of Jacob. He is the favored son born late in life to his father. His father had four wives. Rachel was his true love. He is tricked as a young man into marring her older sister.  So he ends up with 2 wives when they are unable to have children they each have him marry their maid servants.
That is another story.  In this story today Joseph is the favored son. He is a young man and is favored above all the other brothers which as you can imagine causes some bitter and jealous feelings among his siblings. He has two dreams as a young man and shares them with the family in the first the brothers are bowing down to him. In the second the whole family is bowing down to him. I have to question his wisdom in sharing those dreams with everyone. His father does not help things by giving Joseph a very ostentatious coat. He is sending a pretty clear signal to the other brothers that this 11th son is the one who will next lead the family.  How do you determine who is the first born in a family of four wives. Is it the first born or the first born of the frist wife, or the first born of the favored wife. You can see how this could be a point of contention in this family. I've written about Joseph and his story in other posts so I will leave you to read it on your own. What I want to look at today is that he did not forget his dreams.

Most dreams fade quickly upon waking. I know most of mine quickly become muddled and fade away. There are some that are very clear and generally contain something for me to puzzel and ponder what God is saying to me. Some I carry for what seems a very long time. In the case of Joseph, I think his dreams tried and tested him all those long years about 17 while he is taken as a slave on the journey to Egypt, sold to Potiphar, then wrongly imprisoned. It is another couple years before he is remembered after interpreting the dreams of the cup barrer and the baker.

There are things that God speaks to us about our calling and destiny. Sometimes they are clues in dreams or visions, or things spoken prophetically over us. Most often those things are tested and circumstances seem to challenge them at every turn. Was God really speaking that to you or was it just your own imaginations. I am sure for years Joseph was tested and tried by his dreams. Would he just cast them off as impossible, crazy, hopeless or would he ponder them in his heart.

So here he is in this verse on the other side of things. He is at the point of the fulfillment of his dreams. Here his brothers are in Egypt. They don't recognize him but he recognizes them. He understands every word they are saying to each other. I am sure he must wonder if they have changed. Were they still the jerks who sold him into bondage. What had the years worked on them?  

Maybe you have carried a dream or a vision and continue to hope towards its fulfillment. I guess today I want to speak hope and faith to you. Your dream may still seem crazy and impossible.  Joseph carried his dreams through years of hardship. He is one of the characters in the bible that I most admire. He took a bad situation and from it gained wisdom, knowledge and skill. He did not just sit and have a pity party at his misfortune. In it he continually was becoming a better person. It says repeated times and the Lord was with him or the Lord's hand was upon him. He did not leave God back in the days of his youth he carried the Lord with him through the years of hardship and into the years of leadership and prominence.

He did not forget his dreams. The day before his brothers showed up was a day like any other. Suddenly after years of waiting his dream becomes fulfilled.  You don't know when a turning point will come. When suddenly the thing that God has shown or spoken to you, that you have carried in faith will come into being.

For me to see this verse about Joseph remembering his dreams is a confirmation to me. He did not cast them aside. He knew all along even in the impossibility of his dismal circumstances that God was able.
What must it have been like for him in that moment to know that indeed he was not just a crazy dreamer. God had spoken, and in His time he had brought the thing to pass.

I love what he says to his brothers when he finally reveals who he is to them in chapter 45:
 ⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! ⁵ And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. ⁶ For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. ⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.^[a]
 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt

Oh for a Joseph perspective to see that it is not the fault of those who have betrayed or harmed us but it was God who had used those circumstances to prepare Joseph to save many lives. 


Prayer:
Dear Lord, I pray that faith and trust would rise up in those who are carrying dreams, visions or words that seem impossible in light of present circumstances. I pray they would allow those things to drive them into your presence. I pray that like Joseph they would make the best of their difficult situations and allow them to prepare them for your greater plans and purposes in their life. I pray when they find themselves on the other side of a long awaited moment, that like Joseph they would not feel a need to get back at those who betrayed or harmed them but they would be able to have a Joseph perspective and see how through it all you brought your plans and purposes to pass and used it in a willing and faithful heart as a preparation for greater service.

Take away my foolish desires

 A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Psalm 119:37 CEV
Take away my foolish desires,
   and let me find life
   by walking with you.

Oswald Chambers writes. "The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is. We will set up success in Christian work as the aim; the aim is to manifest the glory of God in human life, to live the life hid with Christ in human conditions. Our human relationships are the actual conditions in which the ideal life of God is to be exhibited. "

Rich Mullins writes "I'd rather fight you for something I don't really want than take what you give that I need. And I beat my head against so many walls ....I'm falling on my knees.

In church on Sunday along with serving communion we had a basked filled with promises from the word of God. We believed that God could put in the had of each person the verse that they needed.
The verse I picked was Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you: For every one that asks receives, and he that seeks find; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

I find myself sometimes hesitant to ask because I'm not sure what God wants.  I'd like my life to feel like it fits me. I'm sure that makes no sense at all to anyone reading. Its an odd feeling like I am slogging along in clothes and shoes that are way too big for me. Maybe a bit like David felt trying to wear Saul's armor. He finally had to say I don't need this armor. I've got my sling and my stone and I believe that God will slay this Giant. Maybe I am trying to wear old clothes that are part of an older version of my life and I am realizing more and more that they don't fit and they continually trip me up and frustrate me. I think of Oswald Chambers words "The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it is." Well my life as it is often tests me, I'm not sure I pass with flying colors in the faithfulness end of the spectrum. There's a lot of the time that I would just assume re-write the story. In my coaching there are activities to help you determine what is important to you. You think ahead 5 years and ask"What does my life look like? What's my office like, what am I doing in my life.It is really hard for me to think ahead like that - I seem to have a hard time dreaming. I think because I have had dreams that have de-railed. Dreams all to often are not just me - they include other people. Life happens and other people have their own will and dreams and things quite often don't turn out like we think they should have and we are left to deal with the outcome our our choices and those of others. Which is what trips me up on the dreaming side of things. I can deal with goals because they seem to me to be more built on things that I am able to control. Little steps taken today and over the next days and months and years build a path to reach the goal or a tangible dream.  I think about the back yard mosaic project of Sam Rodia.  He writes "I want my life to be full of light, color and flavor. I want to read, write and build for myself a world where anything and everything is possible." Here is a link to a film about this one man backyard project that takes him 30 years to complete.  I got to go visit the towers a couple of years ago. It was interesting because my dad had lived in California for years and had never seen the towers. As we drove through the very low income area it was hard to think we could possibly be in the right place or what it might be that we would find. We were all blown away by the size and the beauty of the towers and that one man would take and dedicate himself to building the towers.

The towers and Sam Rodia simple life speak to me in a profound way. That though it often seems like we are not getting anywere little by little, line upon line, step by step we can build a dream. With very little resources, mostly things he found cast off by others was used to create an artistic marvel.
Make my life a work of art Lord. May I write, sing, create, and speak into the lives of others, I echo Sam Rodia I'd like my life to be full of light, texture and color.

I wrote a song a while ago called Fractured. Here's a video I did of that song and it has photos from my trip to the Sam Rodia's amazing towers. There is a line in that song "Be my healer, mend my heart, take what's shattered and make a work of art" From that point in my life I have been little by little building a collection of mosaic art projects, recording little bits of music that inspires me, and writing stuff and ministering to hurting people. I look around and I see a big work in progress that sometimes looks to me like a bunch of pointless rubble. I don't make a lot of money from any of it. If that is the measure of success than I have not done so well. While there are days that I feel frustrated and out of sorts with my life (thankfully not too often) the vast majority of my days I am content and at peace with my own life as art project that I'm building.
I thought it was interesting that Sam Rodia after 30 years of building at the age of 75 he decided it was done. He deeded the property to a neighbor and walked away one day to go be near family.

So the verse I chose today says, "Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you." I know I can come up with some crazy desires and things that I think I need to hold on to. On the same token I pray that God would help me to hold on to some of the things of glimmers of a vision that by faith he has put in my heart. Help me to be able to figure out which is the foolish stuff and which is the glimmers of vision.  Where the line is between the two is sometimes very hard to determine. I think like the wheat and the weeds in the parable Jesus told of the kingdom. Sometimes God leaves both to grow up together and sorts them out at the harvest.  I know that I approach the future and I keep it in mind in a loose way, that is not grasping or striving and I look around at what I have to work with today and I work on the things that are before me to do. Little by little it adds up. Little by little time spent in the word, or prayer or service to others adds up. Little by little this writing or thousands of bits of broken glass become things like the "Beloved" project.

So I ponder Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.... I am reminded of a story in 2 Chronicles 1: ⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” ⁸ Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
 ¹¹ God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, ¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.”


I think about what I would most want and it is to know the Lord more deeply, more intimatly, to like Solomon to request wisdom to lead the people God has given me to lead and influence. I'd like to feel like my life is taylor fit to who and what God has created me to do and be for His glory.  I can't decide if I need to some how grow into them or if I need to ask God for something that fits me.

I am thankful that the Lord holds me capable of hearing His voice, and to be able to be led by His Spirit and that stuff that is confusing or overwhelming to me today will make more sense tomorrow and along the way there is Jesus who has promised that His yoke is easy and His burden is light and I am glad he walks beside me and carries the most of the weight.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Help us each to fit better into the life and the plans and purposes you have for us. Help us to know what to take off and what to put on. Be near us Jesus, fill us a fresh with your Holy Spirit and draw us to the throne room of the Father. Thank you for understanding and working on our behalf even when everything around us trys to say "where is God?" Lord I know you will never leave me or forsake me. 

Spinning A New Story

Spinning A New Story
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Click here for this calendar

Hosea 12:9-11 NIV 1984

 ⁹ “I am the LORD your God,
   who brought you out of Egypt;
I will make you live in tents again,
   as in the days of your appointed feasts.
¹⁰ I spoke to the prophets,
   gave them many visions
   and told parables through them.”





I have been thinking about what someone said at the Navigate conference I recently attended about how Jesus created culture through the telling parables. In looking up parables in my concordance I have discovered that parable telling is not just a practice of the New Testament  but is also well established in the old.

Psalm 78: 2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old—


Proverbs 1:5-7

5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
   and let the discerning get guidance—
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
   the sayings and riddles of the wise.

 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
   but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Think about the many stories that are told through out the Bible. Little children learn about Cain and Able, and Noah and The Arc, David and Goliath and so many others. From those stories we begin to learn about God. We see how others encountered God and we learn not only from the stuff they did right but from the stuff they messed up. If God put my story in the Bible - what would that story be like? Would I be the victim or the hero, would I be the lead or the supporting character in someone else's story. I love how the stories I read in my bible the people are rarely perfect. You get their triumphs of faith along with their dismal failures.


I realize that the art of telling a story or even a joke is not my strong suit. I have been good at writing things that encourage people but not so good at spinning a story. I was reading in one of my life coaching books by Laurie Beth Jones in it she writes "Most types of therapy involve someone listening to an old story and helping the client find new meaning in it. Only when the person has transferred from believing the old story (I am a victim) to believing a new story (this event is only helping me to be a much stronger person) does real healing take place."


"She also writes that the words store and story are very similar for a reason. The mind remembers what it attaches emotion to, and by incorporating stories around facts or perceptions, the memory improves."



I have a very hard time talking about the past, be it good or bad. I realize that my tendency is to just keep moving forward. I have found that I have had to go back and look at some of the stories I did hold on to. I realize some of them I could only see from one angle that my perception was very limited. Jesus has had to help me to stepping back I realized there was more going on in those stories than I had previously realized. I have had to accept that in some cases I completely misunderstood the signals others around me were trying to communicate because I filtered them through my own hurts. I am realizing that it is only with Jesus' help that I can make sense of the past and not freak out about the future.



One option is to tell a story from the prospective of the person experiencing the event. One of the reasons that I love to read books is because it gives you a chance to really get into the mind of someone else. It allows me to see somethings from another perspective. I can from a safe place on my couch think about how I might have walked out that moment had I been part of the story. Another way to tell a story is from a all knowing and all seeing prospective. There are characters acting out a story and the one telling has the broad view of whats happening.



I think in telling our own story we need to not only tell it from our own experience but also step back and find that broader view. How does this thing I am going through play into the bigger story that Jesus is orchestrating.  In the November 9th page of Jesus Calling by Sarah Young she writes. "When a future-oriented worry assails you , capture and disarm it by suffusing the Light of My Presence into that mental image. Say to yourself, "Jesus will be with me then and there. With His help, I can cope!"

It is easy to try and deal with the past and the future on our own. We need to remember to take Jesus with us into both of those places. He will never leave or forsake you, so take him with you when you think about the past or the future. He alone can help you see them from the right perspective.


I think it is true not only of the future that we too often worry about but also the past. We need to invite Jesus to go back and revisit those old memories and stories. He has the advantage of being able to see the bigger picture even when we can't. Our focus can be so limited to what is right before our nose that we miss most of what is really going. How do we fit into the larger story of God's plans and purposes?


So I find myself thinking about a new story, a new script, new vision. What might it look like if I allowed myself to dream. I remember a friend who always had these elaborate dreams about what he wanted to do and be. That same person was great at dreaming amazing things but lacked the motivation, and the purpose to do much more than wish that those dreams would some how land in his lap. I realize I tend to be the polar opposite of that I don't like dreams unless I can figure out how to make them happen. In my mind dreams are wispy wishful things that most people only give lip service. Things like someday I want to direct and orchestra, or fly a plane or go to the moon. I hear many people share there wispy type dreams with a sense of longing and realization that its nice to think about but would require far more sacrifice and commitment then they ever really intend to apply. For me I hear those kind of dreams and I think why bother if you are not going to pursue them in some way. What's the point. I don't want to live my life vicariously by watching others live out their dreams on the TV. I prefer vision and goals over dreams. Its like my art I have a moment of inspiration where I can see the finished idea in my mind and I hold on to that and try to capture it in some rough form. I realize that to get to that finished idea that I will have to begin the often long journey of drawings, and experiments and then commit to the tedious long hours of laying glass.  It is true in life and in the stories we begin to tell ourselves that we need to step back to understand the bigger picture. I think for me I need to spend a little more time cultivating some of the wilder wispy dreams or glimmers of inspiration and by them to reach for bigger things than I often try to tackle.

John Eldredge writes "Our adversary also suduces us to abide in certain emotions that act as less-wild lovers, particularly shame, fear, lust, anger and false guilt. They are emotions that "protect" us from the more dangerous feelings of grief, abandonment, disappointment, loneliness, and even joy and longing, that threaten to roam free in the wilder environs of the heart. These are the feelings that frighten us, sometimes even long years into our Christian journey."


I know for myself that I have insulated myself from feeling or dealing with pain, grief and disappointment. Going back with Jesus means that I will need to face those great fears and allow myself to feel them at last and put them away repented of, and forgiven and clean.  For me to even begin to tell the stories I must first allow myself to feel them. I know that I still have a long journey ahead of me as I learn to tell my own stories and become more open and transparent.



Prayer

Dear Lord,

Help us to see how we fit into your bigger story. Help us go back with you to look at some of the old memories and stories and to begin to see them in the light of your purpose. How have the things we experienced molded and shaped us to be able to better deal with the things you have for us to do today. How can we look back and take up faith because we remember that you have seen us through difficulties time and time again. Lord, be our vision and help us to dream bigger but to also break the dream down in to manageable chunks or goals and help us to begin to take those small steps of faith to  move along in our journey from here to there.

The Pure Flowing Waters

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Drawing and Graphic Design by Margot

Psalm 46:4-5 ⁴ There is a river whose
streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
   God will help her at break of day.

I dreamed of someone falling into a very pure river in the far north in Canada. Those who fell in did not come out in the near vicinity to where they fell in, but were pulled out or found their way to shore miles down the river. The boat captain explained that because the water was so pure it moved anything that fell in it ahead very quickly.

Its an odd little dream but I am very visual in how I learn so it was rich with meaning for me. In this dream, it was not me that fell in to the water. It was a friend. They fell into the water or jumped I don't know for sure on that point. The river moved them far ahead. One thing I've noticed about when God speaks to me in dreams is that the people are symbolic of a type of person.  In this case the friend represented always feels that they have lagged behind me in their spiritual walk. So the message to me is to get people to the river who feel they are lagging behind, If they could get into the flow of the river, God is able to move them ahead swiftly in their journey with him. What would take years of walking on foot can happen in moments if we get into the flow of His living waters.

If you are a person who feels you lag behind in your walk with the Lord, fall or jump into the river already. The boat captain was able to move ahead quickly and seemed to know the right place to pull people out of the water. It seemed to be quite a fearful thing to those on the shore. The person might drown or be swept away and never seen again. I suppose when we are ready to move on with God there are always people who would hold us back and remind us of all our duties in the land of familiar.  They are stuck and they would prefer you stay stuck with them. At least in that stuck familiar place everyone knows the rules and they can all be miserable together. Its safe and predictable - not much happens there. It is a brave soul who decides to go on with God into the unknown.

I highly recommend the book The Dream Giver   I found this video of an interview with the author. If you are getting this in your e-mail you may need to visit the actual site for the links. He talks in it of people wandering in a land that is not their destiny. That the dreams that we have are never in the safe confines of our comfort zone we have to press through our fear to go after them. It is worth watching the video. He has some inspiring things to say. When I first read The Dream Giver it rocked my world because I just could not figgure out what my dream even was. For a long time I was troubled as to why I did not seem to have any big dreams.  It has been a long journey of discovery for me to realize that I had taken my dreams and locked them up along with a good portion of my heart. The fear for me was to face the past and let my heart and the dreams out of the trunk that I had locked them into becasue they had become too painful. For a long time the fear for me, was to even go near the trunk and I did everything in my power to try and forget that it even existed. You have your own set of fears that you need to overcome to persue your dream.

Today I pushed past one of mine and went and talked to the manager of the Spokane farmers market. I have made every excuse not to show my mosaic work. Granted in the past I have spent an awful lot of time sitting in malls selling my art and crafts. I have been saying that I would love to be able to make a living doing art and coaching. I have been working on the coaching. The art I have been working on but I have not had any real plans of trying very hard to sell any of it. I do have it posted on line in my Artfire shop and I do a lot with photos of my art at my on line card shop. I have recently added new Cafe Press shop with t-shirts, journals and framed prints using images from the Beloved Project.
This is a step of faith because I have not felt God's hand had really been on me doing the sit in a booth and deal with the public type of shop. The first step was to go talk to the manager of the farmers market which I did today. Tomorrow I will set up for Thursday, Friday and Saturday and be open from 10-6 and I guess test the waters to see if this is something the Lord wants me doing in this season. It is a step of faith I feel led to test. I guess I have been pleasantly surprised by the interest that people have expressed in my art recently.  I guess I'll let you know in a future post how it goes. If nothing else I have pushed past my barriers where I have resisted the whole idea of doing art shows. So I am saying ok - I will try and see what God does. I guess you could say I am dipping my toes in the water of this river to see if it is one that God would have me go in any further.

The river that I talked about earlier however is more of a river of Gods presence. You can try really hard on your own strength or you can come near to God and allow his living water to rush over and through your life.  I have always said that people are changed if they can connect with Gods presence even for a brief moment. Imagine what God can do if you jump all the way in to the river.

In the dream there were lots of worried folks on the shore. There were folks on the boat with the captain. Which is where I was because I was talking to him about what was going on.  There may be more to it but my role it seems was to encourage people to come to the river. To go into the Lords presence a little more than before. Those of you who feel like you lag behind - might want to jump in and allow the Lord to move you ahead in His plans and purposes for your life.

Dreams for me are like puzzles that I need to work out. I suppose the Lord could just tell me but I think there is something to me figuring it out on my own. When I do figure it out - I then own the truth and am more able to actually do something with it. Thats how coaching work - we help people figure out their own puzzle pieces.

Prayer: 
Dear Lord, You know where each person reading this is in their journey with you. You know if we are on the shore, or in the boat with the captain or jumping in the water all the way. Where ever we are you long to meet us there and take us further. Help us to hunger for more of you.