JOSEPH A MAN OF DOUBLE DESIRE.. Double meaning is something at its fullness all the time. Joseph lived a life of fullness a type of Christ life. His story is a story of doubles and repeats. His name meaning God want to do it again and again. This week is a continuation on seeing Joseph a living example of what Christ is like. He is a man of passion and emotion when it comes to loving and longing after His brethren, desiring to make Himself known, desiring to come to see them face to face and to be with them always. The New Testament words for double would be the double superlatives uses in the scriptures to describe the Christ life. 1 Thess. 2:17 we have endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire once and again, but Satan hindered us. The greatest hindrance to a passionate earnest desire is a cold heart. Romans 1 Paul says he wants very much to see His brethren. 15:22 having a great desire to see them. Jesus waits for an eager heart, to be received, to be welcomed, as our desire determines the capacity which we can receive. In the story of Emmaus he walked as if he was going to pass the disciples by, it was in the two disciples constraining to come and be with Him that Jesus reveals Himself to them where once their eyes were holden or forcibly shut as to knowing Him. Our desire to see Him, determines the capacity to receive the revelation of Himself...when Moses turned to see the bush, God took notice and revealed Himself to Him.. it takes more than a casual desire to receive the fullness of what He has for us. Open our mouth wide and He will fill it. Always remembering that the Holy Spirit gives us even the desire, and when we respond to it, ask for more passion, more longing, to see Jesus and He will respond by giving a heart of longing to receive the Spirit's revealing of Him and the things that He has for us.. the deep things that are reserved and even hidden for those that long for and love Him.
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HOW DO I START?
1. Go to your bible and seek out verses that are meaningful and meditate on them, get out your concordance and do a word search on the important words. Let the verses sink deep into your mind and heart and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the things He would like to bring. Then start to write, doodle, draw, color, highlight or underline. (Zebra Eco Zebrite Double Ended Highlighters, fine point are recommended). Gesso is a medium that prepares and protects your pages before the art begins. 2. Sketch your thoughts into pictures and words with a mechanical pencil so you can erase what you don't like. There are fantastic fonts and doodles free on the bible sites that you can make your own or trace out. 3. Outline what you have drawn with a pen. (Pigma Microns and Zigwriter are recommended... .5 for fine lines and 1.2 for the thick lines) 4. Fill your art with color by using gel pens, colored pencil or watercolor pencils. Crayola pencils are alright but Artist Loft Water and Prismacolor Premier give better results). Don't be afraid to make mistakes, really there are not any mistakes. You can always get another bible and start again. WHAT BIBLE IS RIGHT FOR ME?
There are many kinds of journalling bibles on the market now each with its own advantages. The one you choose would depend on whether, you want to color existing art work (which I have) or a bible called a coloring bible which has room for your own creativity. Each bible coming with it own unique style of art, margin space, and blank spaces. Check out the inside if you can, if you are planning on buying online note if it is colored already. You will find an almost endless amount of information and inspiration from pinterest and other internet sources by just typing in "Bible Journalling" and you are on your way to some late nights. I spend four hours one night just downloading over hundred fonts. I found free journalling helps, journals, fonts and templates and I will do my best to give the artists their recognition when I can find their names. I will have free templates that will correspond to the weekly bible studies. HAVING THE RIGHT TOOLS
All you need to start a Bible Journal is a Bible, a highlighter and a pen or pencil. Once you have done some research and feel comfortable to experiment you can try colored pencils, watercolor pencils, paints, stick, washi tape, stencil, stamps and more. For the beginner and the less artistic, stamps, stencils, stickers and templates are a great way to start as they can be traced or glued in as inserts. WHY START A BIBLE JOURNAL At the beginning of 2018 I had this burning in me to increase a love for the word of God in my own life as well as the faithful ladies that come to Friday bible study. I sought a way that would bring new life to our study of God's Word and bring it to proper place it needs to be in our lives. Deut. 8:3 says it is our life, it not only tells us how to live but within it's words it gives us the power to live it out. The main reason many have started a bible journal is so that the word can make a lasting impression by increasing time spend in meditating on scripture and with the God of the scripture. Bible journalling is a creative visual process that draws us deeper into His word, as we color, draw, and research the word sinks down into our hearts, renewing our minds and encouraging our spirits. So with this in mind I ordered my coloring bible and invited the ladies to join me. JOURNAL WEEK TWO -JOSEPH MAN OF THE DOUBLE Joseph was the O.T. type of Christ in His fullness or double. His name means "God wants to do it again and again." His son's name is Ephraim meaning "God has given me double fruit in the land of my affliction". His story is full of repeats and a life of lived to the fullest because God was always with him and prospered everything he put his hand to, because everything he put his hand to was what God had told him to do beforehand. Acts 7:13 It was in the brothers second visit that he makes himself fully known to them, where he says to them, I am Joseph, I am Joseph your brother. Although there was an intense yearning in his bowels he chose to forcibly restrain himself from showing who he really was, but when the revelation finally was made he tells them to quickly go back and bring everyone and everything they had so that they could be near to him. This reflects on John 14 where Jesus says that he will not leave us alone but he will come back again but in the meantime He would send His Holy Spirit to dwell in them, and that in doing so He and Father would come and dwell in them. The Holy Spirit would reveal Jesus by degrees of glory and that we would by those revelations be changed into His image (2 Cor. 3:17). Only those that love Him, desire Him, seek Him would be able to receive these deep revelations. (1 Cor.2:9-10). Paul our N.T example and Joseph our N.T example represent the intense longing that he has for His brethren to be in their presence, to see them face to face. This desire is the same word is also used for inordinate desire, an obsession. The only obsession we are to have is a intense desire to be with Him, the same desire He has for us. We are to be "love sick" for Him. Song of Solomon 2:5 and 5:8. Oh how He loves us.
JOURNAL WEEK FIVE- JOSEPH AND DOUBLE HINDRANCE We see with Joseph in Gen. 43 and 45 that although he yearned intensely to reveal himself to his brethren he had to force himself, restrain or limit himself in doing so. We must ask why would he do so, why would he delay something he has spent decades waiting and yearning for the day when they would come and bow down before him, not desiring the bowing down, but desiring to be with them all once again. When we go to the letters of Paul and see a similar situation, just as Jesus is right now longing to see us bodily but is restraining himself.
Rom.1:13 I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that oftentimes I purposed to come to you, but something has always kept me back until now. Rom. 15:22 I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now having no more place here, and having great desire these many years to come to you. 1 Thess. 2:17 Wherefore we would have come to you, once and again but Satan hindered us. There are many reasons that they were hindered in seeing one another more fully in the physical realm, in seeing Jesus come back but also in the the operation of the Spirit in revealing Christ so that we can be changed from glory to glory. Joseph had more than one factor that restrained him. i. unfinished business. There are things that need to take place first. In the story of Joseph, the brother's needed to be brought to full repentance or their fate was imminent. Also Judah repeats the phrase four times saying that Joseph said "you shall not see my face again unless your brother (the only brother left) be with you". 2 Peter 3:9 Jesus is delaying Himself so that none should perish..all would come to repentance. Hebrews 2:10,11:40, Jesus is bringing many sons unto glory and that we all are going to be presented together, not one of us missing. |
Laurie Dreher
I want to share my love for the word of God with you. I will endeavor to give overviews of Friday morning bible studies. I would appreciate your input and value your insights. Archives
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