"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True..."

                            -Revelation 19:11

My Bible reading this week has found me in Genesis 37-50: the story of Joseph. Ironically, my post on God's faithfulness falls right in the middle of my study of a man who experienced this faithfulness like few others ever have.

At age 17 it looked as if all was going well.  He was frequently receiving visions from God, and his father loved him more than any of his brothers. Obviously this made Jacob's other sons very jealous, and in turn they sold him to a band of Ishmaelites who then proceeded to sell him to the Egyptians. One minute all is going well, the next he is being sold from person to person like a piece of merchandise.

Once established in Egypt,  he once again had a very good and prosperous life. But this also was short-lived and he was thrown in jail due to the lies of a deceitful woman. Yet even through this, "the LORD was with Joseph" (Gen. 39:21), and "that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper", despite his uncertain future and circumstances (Gen. 39:23)(see also Psalm 1:3). After a time in prison, the Lord delivered him and made him one of the most powerful officials in all the land of Egypt, and eventually reunited him and his family.

My point behind all of this is that Joseph experienced his fair share of hardships. He knew what it was like to stand on a mountaintop, but he also knew what it was like to look up at one from the lowest of valleys. Yet through all of these things, the Lord never left his side. In fact,  chapter 39 says four times that God was with him. When he was loved and when he was hated, he was never abandoned by his heavenly Father.

God will never leave us and He will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). When the sun is shining, but also when the rain is pouring, He is there. We may not always feel Him, but we can always trust Him.

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

                        -I John 4:8 

Because many people misinterpret this verse and forget that our God is also a God of justice, I have devoted a number of posts to clarifying that misconception. However, it is just as dangerous to pay so much attention to His justice that we forget about His love. There must be a balance between the two, and so that is why today I want us to carefully consider the love of God and what it means to be the objects of that love.

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

                            -Jeremiah 31:3

The love of God is no ordinary love. It is an extraordinary love that cannot be dispelled by death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, or any other creature (see Romans 8:38-39). It is an "everlasting love" that moved the Father to send "His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) It is a love that cannot be explained, described, or even understood; for those who have been made to receive it have done nothing at all that would make them worthy of such a great and invaluable treasure.

It is evident from such verses as II Peter 3:9 that God loves all humanity and has a desire for each of us to receive salvation through His Son. But there is a special love, known only to believers, that we are instructed to walk in (Jude 21). This love is not based on good works, but upon the fact that we have been adopted into the family of God as His sons and daughters (Romans 8:15). Just as an earthly father has a unique love toward his children and is always seeking their well-being, our Father in heaven watches over us and makes certain that all things work out for our benefit (Romans 8:28).

No doubt, if it were not for His love, God would be neither merciful, gracious, or compassionate. In light of this truth, love is surely one of the most important attributes of God.

Now that the Fruit of the Spirit series has come to a close, I am going to begin a new series about a few of the attributes of God. I will cover the obvious (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence...), as well as the not-so-obvious. My hope is that, by examining the greatness of God Himself, we will each gain a refreshed sense of humility and admiration toward our Heavenly Father.

Please comment and list one or two attributes of God that you would like to see me blog about, and perhaps I'll post about it in the near future!

"And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;"

                            -II Peter 1:6 

In many ways, temperance and longsuffering go hand in hand. If we are one who fails to be longsuffering, then chances are we also fail in the area of temperance, and vice-versa. Therefore it is exceedingly important that we learn self-control (another word for temperance), knowing that we will be lacking two fruits of the Spirit if we don't.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." 

                            -James 1:19-20

It is very rare indeed that anything good is wrought out of our anger. Most of the time, it leads us to do and say things that we later regret, not to mention the hurt feelings that almost always result.

There is an old story that my mom often tells me and my sister about a young boy who was told to go out and drive nails into each of the fence posts in their yard. After he had finished hammering, his father then instructed him to remove every one of the nails he'd just hammered. "While the nails may come out," his father told him, "the holes will aways be there. You can't fix them." Through this, he taught his son that what we say has an everlasting impact on people's lives. We can "take it back", but the hole will always be there.

We need to be careful that our lack of temperance doesn't lead us to say things that could cause another person to stumble. The old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is a piece of baloney. They do hurt, and we need to make sure we don't say anything we'll want to take back later on.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

                            -Matthew 5:5 

Meekness is defined by the dictionary as being humble and submissive. No, meekness is not weakness. If you think it is, then trying being meek for a week and you'll see otherwise. In fact, meekness is a sign of great inward strength and self-control, not weakness and cowardice as many people tend to believe.

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

                            -Philippians 2:3

Part of being meek is doing as Paul admonished the Philippians and esteeming others to be "better than ourselves." This doesn't mean we should be self-deprecating or insecure; it means we ought to realize how little we really have to offer God, and thus don't go around pretending like we're better than everyone else.

In I Timothy 1:15, Paul confessed that he viewed himself as the chief of sinners. What an example of meekness! Instead of talking about his many great accomplishments, such as the churches he'd established and the sacrifices he had made for the sake of the Gospel, he focused on his inadequacy and the fact that he didn't deserve "the least of God's mercies." (see Genesis 32:10) Likewise, we shouldn't get so caught up in admiring our successes that we forget all of our failures.

(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

                            -Numbers 12:3

Out of all the godly men and women throughout Scripture, few were used in a mightier way than Moses. I believe that is because, as this verse says, he had mastered the art of being meek. Nobody upon the face of the earth was more meek than he was, and so God used him to lead His chosen people out of captivity. In the same way, if we want to be used by God, all pride, arrogance, and haughtiness must go and meekness must take their place.

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

                            -Hebrews 11:6 

Faith is one of those things that I think we all have a little bit of. We have faith that the sun is going to rise in the morning, that summer will come after spring, and that life in general will continue to move on as usual. However, when it comes to having faith in God, many of us falter. Despite the fact that He has proven Himself to be more faithful than the sunrise, many  people invariably doubt His Word and His character.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

                            -Romans 12:3

We have all been given "a measure of faith", but it is up to us in deciding where to place that faith. We can place it in God, the only One Who will never fail us, or we can place it in the things of this world - only to be disappointed countless times over. As I like to say, it is not the amount of our faith, but the object of our faith, that determines whether or not it is strong. Better is a little faith in God than an abundance of faith in uncertain riches and temporal pleasures.

I'm confident that if we would all have more faith in God, we would see more sick people healed (yes, He still does that!), more lost loved ones saved, and more miracles of every sort. But when God looks down and sees doubt, why would He then proceed to bless us knowing that we didn't even believe He could do it in the first place? Faith precedes every great miracle.

"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."

                            -James 1:6

Just read Hebrews 11 (aka "The Faith Chapter") and you will see that every every great hero of the Bible had faith. If we want to be remembered as a good soldier of the Cross, then this fruit of the Spirit must be brought forth abundantly in our lives.

"And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

                            -Romans 15:14 

This fruit of the Spirit is much more difficult to expound on, due to the fact that it encompasses such a vast subject, so I suppose it would be helpful to us if we first looked at the very root of the word goodness. Goodness, of course, simply means the state of being good. While I'm sure that most of you reading this would profess to be a  good person, we must remember what the Word of God says in Romans 3:10:  

"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." 

The reason I bring this passage of Scripture up is to point out that it is impossible for us to be good through our own efforts. Like all of the other fruits of the Spirit, we must first have the Holy Ghost in our lives in order to develop it. Remember, they are called "The Fruit of the Spirit", not "The Fruit of Our Own Efforts."

When I was young, I was taught to begin my mealtime prayers with the words, "God is good..." Despite the fact that it was only a children's prayer, those words couldn't be more true. We serve a good God. And because we serve a good God, His dwelling in us ought to result in us being good children of God. (If you haven't noticed by now, every one of the fruits of the Spirit can be gained by simply becoming like Christ.)

When I look back over the past 24 hours of my life, I must say that there have been instances in which I have been lacking somewhat greatly in the area of goodness. "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"  over our areas of weakness and insufficiency (I Corinthians 15:57)!