Here is a summary of the story of Joseph in Genesis: Joseph in the Old Testament was the overconfident younger son of Jacob. He was known to his older brothers as their father?s favorite. For this reason his 10 older brothers conspired against the boy and sold him to slave traders, while telling their father the boy had been mauled by an animal. Joseph had been given dreams of God?s plan for his life; so with confidence and strength, he endured in this amazing story in Genesis. ?The slave traders took him into Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh?s officers. Joseph served his master well and gained great favor. But the master?s wife tried to seduce Joseph, a young man of impeccable integrity. After he rejected her, she went to her husband with false accusations. It resulted in Joseph?s imprisonment. Once again, God proved his presence and protection for Joseph. The prison keeper befriended him and learned of Joseph?s divine ability to interpret dreams. Because of earning this reputation, Joseph was called upon to interpret a dream that deeply troubled the Pharaoh. None of the Pharaoh?s wise consults had been able to decipher the dream. But Joseph accurately relayed the symbols in the dream to a future time of abundance that would be followed by a time of great famine. The Pharaoh rewarded Joseph with overseeing the lands of Egypt. In these prosperous times he stored up the abundant harvest toward the tragic times ahead. During the years of famine, Joseph?s brothers came in search of grains and foods to keep their people from starvation. Not recognizing their young Hebrew brother as this matured and prominent Egyptian, he ordered them to return with their younger brother. When the brothers returned with Benjamin, Joseph revealed his identity. The brothers suffered from great remorse of their actions and Joseph forgave them. It was a joyous reunion between a grieved father and lost son. Joseph?s years of steadfast reliance on God brought about not only reunion but his high position so that he was able to save a nation from starvation. (http://www.dltk-bible.com/genesis/story_of_joseph-cv.htm)

I have spent the past week at Cedarkirk leading worship for the elementary children and the High School leadership team. Throughout worship, we enjoyed learning more about having an active faith and what it means to have the courage to believe in God. For me, it was a productive week as well. I was able to get a lot of things done that had been weighing over me. It is great to be here and feel more refreshed than I have in a while. I realized this past week what a gift it is to be able to lead worship with and for children and youth; and also what a blessing it is to be able to speak into the lives of adults, most who are much older than me and have lived so much more of their lives than I have. Today, we are going to talk through the story of Joseph. This is one of the faith questions from the box. What the person shared about the story of Joseph is perfect: ?I like the story of how God was able to take the negative occurrences in Joseph?s life and turn them into positives.? As I thought about that summary, I am constantly reminded of the amount of negative occurrences that are happening in our world and wondering how God is going to turn them into positives. As we go into the time of the message, I invite you to watch this video summary and perspective.

I love the how it was presented with what does the story of Joseph teach us about trusting God. The amount of trials and tribulations that Joseph experienced by the hands of his brother, his family, his supervisors, his government officials and spouses, and others, you would think that Joseph would have a hard time trusting in God and continuing to believe that God had a plan for his life. Yet, Joseph remained faithful and taught us an important lesson about God and trust. ?Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.? You intended hard, but God intended it for good. I hear those words and think about the amount of harm that is being caused in our community, our state, our country, and our world right now. To me, it is getting hard to see where the good will come.