Devotions For The Reconciled Life

Genesis 37 , Genesis 39 , and Genesis 40 “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men          Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,          For promis’d joy!” From To a Mouse By Robert Burns This poem from 1795 is famous for the more modern sounding line “the best laid plans of mouse and mem”.  (Oh how the English language has changed in 200 years.)  I never knew the rest of this poem until I started writing this devotional and thought about the line and looked up where it was from.  The rest of the poem tells the full story, “And leaves us nothing but grief and pain for promised joy!”  I feel this very often when I look back at the plans I had.  My plans left me nothing but grief and pain.  I had great plans, but my plans did not happen as I had planned.  I’m sure that I’m not alone in this.  We all have plans that have crashed and have asked God “why?” Joseph, the son of Jacob or Israel, likely asked this question several times in his life.  In Gen

“Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves,“Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them,“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:35-41 I am afraid of heights.  Not severely, but I like to avoid heights.  My father is terrified of heights.  Given that, on the farm when high work needed to be done, my brother or I were the ones to do it.  Putting a tin roof on a hay barn, it was my brother or I.  Patching the roof of our home, it was my brother or I.  Given all that experience with hight you would think I would have dealt with my fear of heights, but still to this day I am afraid of heights. I did struggle with questioning if my father cared since he placed my brother or me in these situations.  I knew, and know that my dad loved and loves me.  He put us in those situations to accomplish a needed task and to prevent us from having the fear t

Mark 1 , Jesus declares that the time promised by God had come. He separates son’s from their father’s fishing business. Taught with authority in the synagogue. Cast out an evil spirit. Heals many people including Peter’s mother-in-law. Touches and heals a man of leprosy. Mark 2 , Forgives a man of his sins then heals him of paralysis Brings a criminal (tax collector Levi) into his close followers. Dines with numerous criminals (Roman tax collectors) and challenged the Pharisees. Challenges the religious customs of the day concerning fasting. Challenges the religious customs of the day concerning the Sabbath. Mark 3 Further challenges the religious customs by healing on the Sabbath. Upsets the status quo by the numbers that followed him. He chooses 12 very ordinary men to be his apostles including a Roman sympathizer and a zealot. Challenges the experts in religion. He places his followers above his family of birth. There wa