The good, the bad and the desperately ugly

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

Photo by my son, Niah Ferlito

Genesis 50:20 (NIV1984)

²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.


In this passage it is good to know the story behind it. Joseph is now the number two guy in the world super power of his day. Has just buried his father and his brothers are worried that he might now take revenge on them for the many years of hardship that he suffered because of their jealousy and wickedness. It was betrayal of the highest degree. His own brothers tossed him in a pit and were going to kill him but decided to sell him to slave traders. 
Most of us could understand how he might still hold a grudge against them. 


I think of the story of Corre TenBoom who forgives the guard that was responsible for her beloved sisters death while in a concentration camp. A camp they ended up in not because they were jewish but because they felt compelled as believing Christians to help their Jewish neighbors. 


So you are probably thinking that Joseph and Corre were super duper believers. How does one go through the hardship of loosing family, friends, the dream of the life you had planned, to end up in prison, or as a slave? How is that possibly God's plan.
If you go back to verse 19 you see a bit of Joseph's heart and character. "¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?" It is God who judges the hearts of men. It is God who looks at our motives, our fears, our failures. Joseph knew that he could not see the whole picture - and so he left judgement in the hands of God. 


We don't know if and when a heart will turn to Jesus and be saved. That thief next to Jesus on the cross was a bad dude who deserved to be punished for his wickedness. Yet he decided in that moment to believe Jesus was actually who he claimed to be. You talk about a death bed conversion - minus the comfy matres, pillows and blankets.  We just don't know when people will break and finally be able to receive the Lord. Saul was persecuting Christians one day and ran into Jesus as a blinding light and a voice from heaven on the way to trouble and murder more Christians. He in that instant realizes he was on the wrong road and God uses him to take the gospel to the gentiles. Why him? He was a jurk, a killer, educated, powerful bad guy. Why bother to transform and save him?


I suppose part of going through hardship and the loss of the life we thought we were supposed to have is to realize who we belong to. To know that God walks with us in the dark valleys. In those places where the people we should have been able to trust have betrayed us. In the places where some accident takes away our ability to function and do the things we loved doing. We might even have made poor decisions and choices that have cost us dearly or harmed someone else. We feel guilt, shame, grief, and the loss. We could blame others, ourself and even God. We could live our life as a miserable bitter retch or we could turn to God and say "I don't know how this mess can possibly bring you glory but I give you all of my life the good, the bad and the desperately ugly - I give you permission to use it in ways that I can't even see or understand at this point. I choose to trust you." 


I think that Joseph and Corre and others who have sufferer have a choice to make. Will you choose the path of self pity and bitterness, or will you choose the path of trust and forgiveness. Both found themselves in horrible conditions and yet were able to trust God even when everything made no sense to them. They stopped asking the why's and started looking for opportunities to depend and rely on God right in the middle of all the badness. 

Corrie at one point helps the other women to give thanks for the flea infestation in their bunks. Because of the fleas the guards came in less and left quickly and they had a bit of privacy to pray together and talk about the truth's of the Word there in their flee infested chambers. 


Often it is the difficulties that we face that mold and shape us into Gods person. Joseph is able to save a nation of people and his estranged family from famine and death. He went from prison to guy in charge in one defining moment. But was it really one moment or was it a life time of trusting God and making the best of the bad hand he'd been dealt. 


Prayer: Lord, We choose to forgive, and if we don't know how to forgive, we choose to be willing to forgive and to allow you to begin to work forgiveness in our hearts. We choose to surrender our life to your plans and purposes. We choose to thank you for the blessings that are often in disguise. We choose to thank you for those difficulties that cause us to realize we have no where to turn but to you. We choose to suspend judgement on what is going on and to watch and see what you do with it in time. We give you the good, the bad and the desperately ugly of our lives uses it somehow for your glory and your fame.  

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” 

― Corrie Ten Boom

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.

Seek Good and Not Evil

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

“Seek good and not evil, 

That you may live; 

So the LORD God of hosts 

will be with you, 

As you have spoken. 

Hate evil, love good; 

Establish justice in the gate. 

It may be that 

the LORD God of hosts 

Will be gracious to the 

remnant of Joseph.”

 

Amos 5:14-15

So a remnant of Joseph... He is that guy with 12 brothers from 4 mothers. He was the favorite of His father and the other brothers were a bit jealous. It's a pretty dysfunctional family. Dad had 4 wives, the one he really loved has died, she was Josephs mom. So Joseph and little brother Ben have no mom to look out for them and Dad probably tries to pick up the slack - which makes the others envious. His father makes him a special coat of many colors that pretty much announces to the others that this is the son who Dad will make into the next leader of the family. 

That would have been plenty enough to make the brothers upset. Then Joseph starts having dreams about things bowing down to him. The brothers get some crazy idea that if they could just get rid of Joseph that everything would be better. Dad would look at them and see their value and worth. He would pay attention to them. The rightful oldest son would carry on the leadership. Everything would be so much better if they could just get rid of Joseph.

One day they are out taking care of sheep far from home and off in the distance they see Joseph coming to check up on them. The tattle tale will tell Dad they were not grazing where they were supposed to be.  So they gang up on him and put him in a dry well planning to kill him.  Along come some merchant slave traders and they decide to sell Joseph to them. Off Joseph goes betrayed by his brothers to Egypt.

You might think the brothers had solved their problems but when they told their dad that Joseph had been killed, that day they lost their Dad too. He was never the same after learning of Josephs death. His hopes, his dreams, his reason to get up in the morning all gone. The brothers spend the next 17 years with a depressed and dejected dad, who now clings to little Benjamin like he's the only thing left that is precious or good in the world.

Joseph spends the next 17 years first in slavery, where he learns many skills because everything he puts his hand to is blessed by God. So he is promoted up and up until he comes to the attention of the masters wife. She tries and tries to get an affair going with Joseph and at one point rips his clothes from him when he refuses her. She, then scornful and rejected sets him up as having molested her.  So off Joseph goes to prison. Even there he finds favor and while I'm sure it was not easy he is put in charge of things. A long time later two guys from the palace get tossed in prison and have dreams. Joseph is able to tell the meaning of the dreams and it turns out he was right. But the guy who he was right about gets busy and forgets about him until years later when the Pharoh starts having dreams and can't find anyone to make sense of them for him.  "Oh yeah - when I was in prison master there was a guy who told me what my dream ment and he was right". So they clean up Joseph and bring him in. He does bring Gods wisdom and warning and the Pharoh does heed it. Joseph says find someone wise to manage things in the 7 years of plenty. Well Pharoah picks Joseph. In an instant thing change for him. He goes from slave to second only to the Pharoh himself.  The story goes on and you can read it in Geneis 39 and on and you can go back a bit to catch some of the back story.

Joseph is one of my Bible favorites. His story of faith, trust and hope in God despite years of hardship and every circumstance in his life saying other wise.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. We all know how Joseph's story ends but he did not know other than those crazy dreams he had as a young man while still at home with Dad and the brothers. I know how those dreams must have challenged him. The Lord has shown me some things through the years and during the time of having to trust and believe in spite of everything that appears impossible in the road between here and there. There are days when I can think - I must just be nuts to believe for this impossible thing that God has shown me. It is in those times that I look back and remember other things that God has shown me that have happened. He reminds me of things he has told me to do and say and how my faith started a chain reaction in the lives of others. When the weight of trust and faith gets too heavy I stop and look back and remember the many things God has done. 

In those times when the weight of trust and faith becomes heavy and the logical thing to do is to sit down in dispair and in worry. I choose not to - I look for the things that I can do at present and I do those things. I find things to thank the Lord for in my present situation and circumstance.

I think the last part of our verse today speaks of keeping current with the Lord.  Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the LORD God of hosts Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.  I don't think any of us can rest on our past successes. Today is the day we must choose to follow the Lord. We can think that our place in the family tree gives us a greater advantage.  Much of Israel and even Josephs family after him fell away from the Lord and turned to worshiping the gods of the surrounding regions.  God always has a remnant of the faithful who choose him today and will choose to walk with him tomorrow no matter what hardships they may face.  We are in good company when we follow the example of people like Joseph. Life gave him lemons and he made lemonaid. He he could have done the least to get by and exist as a slave. He was not that kind of a guy, he did his best in every situation. He learned and he became skilled and he grew in wisdom and favor.

 Who of us can say if our difficult circumstances are a tool in the hand of God to create in us the character, and the skills and the wisdom for some future use that we cannot even yet see.

The Prayer Loft at my church where my art is featured.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
I pray that you will help us each to make the most of the circumstances that we find ourselves facing. How can I stop blaming the people around me and decide to be a better person. How can I change my attitude, and focus to make it more pleasing to you Lord. Help me to be thankful for even the difficulties that you allow in my life. Help me to not resist the wine press. I don't want to sit around and become spoiled fruit. I want to become fine wine that brings you glory and honor. So Lord I must submit not only to the wine press but to the time of waiting for the juice to ferment and become aged to become its most rich and full and flavorful wine to grace the table of the Lord of Lords.

He Preserves The Faithful

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He Preserves 
The Faithful
A Devotional by Margot Cioccio




Psalm 31:23-24 (NIV1984)
 Love the LORD, all his saints! 
The LORD preserves the faithful,
   but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart, 
all you who hope in the LORD.

We moved to Spokane for a better job with the company my husband had been working for and two months later they closed their doors. We had committed to renting a big 5 bedroom home and signed a 2 year lease. He looked for jobs for 2 years while also going to school to get his associates degree. During that time we did have unemployment money but the budget never worked out on paper.
Over and over again God supplied our need most often at the last moment. He preserves the faithful!

Un-employment ended and my husband still had not found a job and so we decided to move out of the big house. It was a horrible hard move. We had to get rid of about half of our stuff in garage sales because we knew we had to move to a smaller home. Then we did not find another place in time and had to move to storage and went to stay with my mom. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD

While we were there my mom fell and the place she hit her arm became infected with a type of MERSA. She was in the hospital and they tried and tried to treat it with various medications. Soon as the medicine course would end it would flair up again. They finally after more than a month, had to do an operation to remove the tissue in that area. During that same time my aunt that lives above my mother also had to have surgery.  So it was clear that God had us there on purpose. They could not have managed with out our help. It was a 45 minutes drive from her house into Spokane.  With lessons and activities we are involved in we made that drive several times a week. We did finally find a small home to move into a year ago in July. It was more than I had hoped to have to pay but it over looks a beautiful wetland area. My husband did get a part time job working nights doing store resets - He has to travel to stores around the region. He is still doing that job a year later. 

I’d like to say I have easy answers for why some periods of our life are so difficult. I know that God has used it to cause me to press into Him.  I have seen God to be faithful and I have learned to need less. Gods goal is to shape us and mold us to fulfill his plans and purposes. To do that he often uses trials, hardship and pain - they are in hind site often blessings in disguise that prepare us for future things. Joseph spent 22 years as a slave and in prison.  Would God put someone through pain, disappointment, hardship to prepare them to later save a nation. We read those stories and we know the ending but during those years Joseph did not know how it would turn out.  If I have learned anything it is to trust God even when I don’t understand. Some things will only become clear in the light of future. One never knows when we will turn the corner and that future someday will be staring us in the face providing the answer to what we do not yet understand.  We can't however just stand around scratching our heads. We need to be taking the little steps of faith that present themselves day by day.  He makes the vision and the way more clear as we take each progressive step of faith.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for your promise to preserve the faithful. Help me be strong and take heart. My hope is in you Lord. Right now I don’t understand all the whys. I pray you use this time in my life to mold and shape me to fulfill your purposes.