Love will overlook offenses, forgive, let them go and move on.  Love will not remain focused on a harm done to them or a desire to do harm.  Rather, Love will remain focused on what is good, refusing to hold resentment in our hearts.   Writing last week about Joshua, he reflected this kind of love for his brothers.  He refused to take offense and pay them back for the wrongs they had done to him.  Rather, he knew he was…..

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Genesis 45:1-2, “Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, ‘Send everyone away from me!’ So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.” Can you imagine Joseph telling you the story of his life and how it was brought to this place of being able to forgive, release the…..

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“He [Isaac] went up from there to Beersheba.   The Lord appeared to him that same night and said, ‘I am the God of Abraham your father.  Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.’  He built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there.  And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.” (Genesis 26:24) Isaac met God in Beersheba…..

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“…God tested Abraham and said to Him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-2) Abraham was quick to respond.   Before he knew what God would ask, he answered yes from his heart in his, “Here I am.”    Abraham had waited…..

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‘Strike the ground and don’t stop!’    This was the will of the Lord  for the king of Israel as he was being attacked by his enemies.   Rather than letting it make him weak and apathetic, he was to strengthen his hands and press in all the more for the victory.    He was to take the ground by faith and not by sight.   It says that King Joash came to see Elisha before his death.   Rather than seeing just a death…..

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“See His glory shine forever…  We will see Him, coming on the clouds of heaven, exalted,” sings in the background.  Haggai 2:9, prophesies, “The future [final] glory of this temple will be greater than its past glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”  Ezekiel also prophesies of the glory of the latter temple.   He sees the glory of the Lord fill the temple (Ez……

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Job was a great father who loved his children deeply.   He would rise early in the dawn every morning to petition the Lord on behalf of his children.   He was also an outstanding community member.   He was doing amazing things in caring and looking out for others.  He never overlooked helping people out and went out of his way to assist others who were struggling get on the right path.   He loved God and his neighbors well.   He was also…..

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“On YHWH the God of Israel did he rely; after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, [nor] of those who were before him.  He clung to YHWH, and did not turn aside from [following] after him, but he kept his commandments, which YHWH had commanded Moshe.  So YHWH was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.” (II Kings 18:5-7, FOX SBVII) Hezekiah loved the Lord.  He was willing to step up and…..

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Genesis 25:26 “After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.” Names, at the time of Jacob, had significance and meaning.   They prophetically described the essence of someone, revealing the theme or purpose in their life in their relationship with the Lord.   For example, Elijah’s name means, “The Lord is my God” while his successor, Elisha’s name means “Salvation.”   And it…..

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In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul asks, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” The temple, in the times of Solomon, was central to the Israelites and their worship.   It had great value and was filled with extravagance with the purpose of exalting…..

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