day 797: Entrustments

"When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife."

Every day, in every company, someone gets a new job. From the top job to the entry level roles, someone else entrusts some part of the business to someone new. What we all know, from experience in many cases, is that this entrusting can be nerve-wracking and downright frightening. But, just because we worry and are concerned doesn't mean that we shouldn't entrust and allow others to grow and develop. There are lots of studies on how we can grow people and companies, but one thing has always stood out to me is that the most successful people are those who were entrusted with some large responsibility before they were chronologically or experiential ready. If one survives the deep end of the pool and then thrives then there is confidence and learning that happens and gets multiplied within the person. Others around also rise to the occasion. We each have many occasions to allow people to reach for their full potential. If not held back, trusted, and supported they can do much and go far.

I can only stand back and marvel at what Joseph, the adopted Father of Jesus, must have felt when he learned he was being entrusted, By God, with the raising and support of Jesus. Not being a biological father, I marvel even more in Joseph's commitment to take on the responsibility of a child not his own flesh and blood and to do so in way that was far from expected. Joseph then went on to raise Jesus as if he was his own and I believe felt all the pains, joys, anxiety, concern, and hopefulness for his son, Jesus, as any other father would. We never know in life what we will be entrusted, but whatever it may be, big or small, we should only need to look to the willingness of Joseph to know what it means to be entrusted. Let's not forget what have already as we enter into this most high and special weekend.

Purposed worKING will be taking a holiday break until Tuesday January 3rd. Thank you for your support and readership and let me wish each and every one of you a very, very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Reference: Matthew 1:24 (New Living Testament)

day 602: The Joseph Company

If you read Purposed worKING regularly, you have seen me quote and reference David Wilkerson. Well, he recently wrote something that is so good and so applicable that it warrants being the topic of today's post. Enjoy, "The Joseph Company" by David Wilkerson:

THE JOSEPH COMPANY



Joseph had a vision that his life would be used mightily by God. But that

vision seemed like a pipe dream after his jealous brothers sold him into

slavery. The following years of Joseph’s life were filled with hardship and

injustice. Then, when Joseph seemed to get back on his feet, he was falsely

accused of attempted rape and sent to prison.



Yet, all this time, God was watching over Joseph’s life. And finally, after

years of turmoil, Joseph ended up serving in Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh

eventually appointed Joseph ruler over all of Egypt.



Beloved, that’s how God works; he was preparing a man to save a remnant.

Indeed, in every generation, the Lord raises up a Joseph Company. He takes

these devoted servants through years of trouble and trials, to prove and

strengthen their faith.



What does this mean? Scripture says it’s what Joseph endured: “He sent a

man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt

with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word

of the Lord tried him” (Psalm 105:17–19).



The Lord also has a Joseph Company today. These are godly men and women he has

touched and called. They don’t seek fame or fortune. All they want is to live

and die fulfilling the calling God has placed on them. And the Lord promised

their lives would count for his kingdom.



Joseph told his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity

in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not

you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and

lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt” (Genesis

45:7–8).



Joseph could look back over his years of suffering and testify, “God sent me

on this journey. He had a purpose in taking me through all these hardships. I

see now that everything I’ve endured has led up to this moment. Brothers, the

Lord has been preparing me to minister to you. He orchestrated all of these

things, to bring you under his preserving grace as he did with me.”



What an incredible revelation for Joseph. Yet, what is the lesson here for

God’s people today? It is this: Our Lord has preserved us in the past and he

will preserve us in the days ahead. And, most important of all, he has an

eternal purpose behind it all. He preserved you because he has a purpose for

you. He has laid out a divine work ahead of you. And only a tried, tested,

proven believer can accomplish it.

day 314: Back To The Ordinary (Redux)

First posted on January 2nd, 2009

January can be one of the most exciting months of the year because of the feeling of a new start that comes with a new year. But for most, January is the month of deprivation. This is the month that we resolve to do more with less, lose a few pounds with less intake and more output, be more diligent with exercise schedules, balance out work and life better, etc. You know the list. At work it is the beginning of a quarter or a fiscal year and even before the year is really started we are already setting down and planning and adjusting to be sure that we can hit the targets that we have set for ourselves. With a swirling external economic climate, we may already be cutting back to make sure that we have breathing room in the coming months and year. So, after all the Christmas build up and holiday enthusiasm, January can feel like a real let down and a hard time for many. As I reflected on the January doldrums I was reminded of how Joseph and Mary must have felt after their first Christmas. What a heady experience to have given birth to a new son, to have experienced the coming of the angel and the visitors being drawn to the stable to see and worship the baby Jesus, and to have gone to the Temple and had Simeon and Anna prophecy over their child. And then, it was over. The angel was gone, the shepherds and visitors had gone their own way and it was time to go home. Mary and Joseph left the temple and the Bible says in Luke 2:39; "...they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee". For Mary it was now to work to raise a child and for Joseph it was back to his carpentry and making a living for his family and now with one new mouth to feed. It was back to the ordinary for both of them. It was a January and a new year, a year to go back to work and do what was needed to make their own ends meet. Our life and work life of purpose is not to always be filled with highs. It would be great if it was that way, but we all know that it just doesn't work out that way. Our lives are filled with the ordinary and the routine. And, even in the ordinary and the routine we are to seek and work to live to the high standards we have been given as followers of Jesus. As we each start this work year, let us take all of the lessons given to us and do our best to apply them each and every day, knowing that like Joseph and Mary, that returning back to Nazareth was one ordinary step on what was to become a miraculous life journey. They didn't know it then, as we don't know today, but what can come from the ordinary, lived and pursued with righteousness, can be nothing short of extraordinary.

Reference: Luke 2:39 (New Living Testament)

day 131: Bad To Good

How many times in our careers have we said to ourselves or others, "I can't believe this happened to me, I got (add your own personalized descriptive words)." For seemingly no fault of our own or so we think, we get the short-straw or get left behind, passed over, left out, or called on the carpet, etc. And we moan and groan, sometimes for a long time or even for the rest of our career, about how we missed our shot. What I have seen in people is that these "old stories" just drag them and others around them down. After time, the old stories need to be replaced with new ones and we need to get on with life and realize that from bad things that happen to us good can rise from them. There is no better story about this than Joseph who had way more than his fair share of bad things happen to him in his life and career. He gets sold into slavery by his brothers, he gets falsely accused of trying to rape his bosses wife, he gets sent to prison, he helps out others to get out of prison and then they forget him for years to come, and through it all he is separated from his family. And we moan over missing out on going on a business trip or being passed over for a promotion, or not getting an extra percentage point in our annual raise? I think Joseph had it just a bit worse off don't you? If we doubt that good can come from bad, then hear the rest of Joseph's story as he rises up to be the number two most powerful person in Egypt and the right hand person to Pharaoh. In his own words in Genesis 50:20 we hear him say to his brothers who had betrayed him and started the whole daisy-chain of events; "As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people". Can there be a better story for helping us put into perspective the long term effects of the bad things that happen to us? Joseph's character signature was that he never stopped trusting God to raise him above all of his trials. His faith was so strong that whatever happened he would accept it within God's will for him. In the big scheme of things, we get bogged down with such minutia of work problems and let them fester that in comparison to Joseph they look silly. Don't get me wrong, I know they feel like big weights at the time, but with turning them over to God, taking the attitude and approach of Joseph, we may well find that what we think is too heavy for us and too bad is not really that bad after all, and whatever it is, we can faithfully wait and see how it will turn to God's good.

Reference: Genesis 50:20 (New Living Testament)

day 130: Potiphar's Joseph

Joseph is one of the great men and heroes of the Bible. Joseph was not a prophet, a judge,or a king. Joseph was a worker and in fact he didn't make, move, or sell anything. He was an administrator. In today's vernacular he was General & Administrative overhead (G&A). And today, when things get tough the first part of the business to cut are G&A costs. "Why do we need more administration or people watching over things?" the board of directors may ask. It is a good question but the board of directors in Potiphar's house would not have gotten the answer they might have wanted from Potiphar. It says in Genesis 39:6 that Joseph was so successful in everything that he did that, "...Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to eat." How good was Joseph that he was that good? Well, we know that God had blessed him and that whatever he took on God made it good and successful and we know later that he was so good at what he did that he became the number two person over all of Egypt for the Pharoah. Joseph was really, really good at what he did. He also got to these positions because he was fully trustworthy, responsible and accountable. He became so accountable that when tempted with Potiphar's most prized possession that he turned his back on the temptation. Joseph was the ultimate "right-hand person". Don't we all wish we could have a Joseph working for us? We might have someone who is close, but we just never know where the line gets drawn. What we can strive to be is a Joseph to our own boss. We can do what it takes to build the trust, credibility, and responsibility to be known as one who can get things done and gets them done in the right way with other people. We can build our reputations as people who have earned the privilege of doing more. Joseph had God on his side. So, do we. Joseph was faced with one trial after another and with God's support rose above them. We also have God who through our faith will do the same for us. If we choose to be, we can be Potiphar's Joseph!

Reference: Genesis 39:6 (New Living Testament)

day 63: Back To The Ordinary

January can be one of the most exciting months of the year because of the feeling of a new start that comes with a new year. But for most, January is the month of deprivation. This is the month that we resolve to do more with less, lose a few pounds with less intake and more output, be more diligent with exercise schedules, balance out work and life better, etc. You know the list. At work it is the beginning of a quarter or a fiscal year and even before the year is really started we are already setting down and planning and adjusting to be sure that we can hit the targets that we have set for ourselves. With a swirling external economic climate, we may already be cutting back to make sure that we have breathing room in the coming months and year. So, after all the Christmas build up and holiday enthusiasm, January can feel like a real let down and a hard time for many. As I reflected on the January doldrums I was reminded of how Joseph and Mary must have felt after their first Christmas. What a heady experience to have given birth to a new son, to have experienced the coming of the angel and the visitors being drawn to the stable to see and worship the baby Jesus, and to have gone to the Temple and had Simeon and Anna prophecy over their child. And then, it was over. The angel was gone, the shepherds and visitors had gone their own way and it was time to go home. Mary and Joseph left the temple and the Bible says in Luke 2:39; "...they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee". For Mary it was now to work to raise a child and for Joseph it was back to his carpentry and making a living for his family and now with one new mouth to feed. It was back to the ordinary for both of them. It was a January and a new year, a year to go back to work and do what was needed to make their own ends meet. Our life and work life of purpose is not to always be filled with highs. It would be great if it was that way, but we all know that it just doesn't work out that way. Our lives are filled with the ordinary and the routine. And, even in the ordinary and the routine we are to seek and work to live to the high standards we have been given as followers of Jesus. As we each start this work year, let us take all of the lessons given to us and do our best to apply them each and every day, knowing that like Joseph and Mary, that returning back to Nazareth was one ordinary step on what was to become a miraculous life journey. They didn't know it then, as we don't know today, but what can come from the ordinary, lived and pursued with righteousness, can be nothing short of extraordinary.

Reference: Luke 2:39 (New Living Testament)

day 52: God's Workers

So many times we feel like in order to do God’s work we have to be called to leave our jobs and go into ministry. And because we thnk this, we can feel unfulfilled in our work. I was reading a section of Blackaby’s Experiencing God and he points out that if you catalog some of the great people of the Bible, you will see that they were workers and through their work God used them to do great things in His name and glory.

Take a look:

-Abraham (Genesis 24:35
-Isaac (Genesis 26:12-14)
-Jacob (Genesis 30:43)
-Joseph (Genesis 41:37-57)
-Moses (Exodus 3:1-6)
-Elisha (1 Kings 19:19-21)
-Amos (Amos 7:14)
-Jesus the Carpenter
-The Apostles (Mark 1:16-20, Mark 2:14)
-Joseph of Arithmea (Mark 15:42-43; John 19:38)
-Lydia (Acts 16:14-15)
-Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:1-2)

If you doubt at all if God can use you in your work to do great things for Him, then doubt no more. You have been trained to understand people, economics, what products and services people want and desire, leadership, and teamwork. What a great piece of clay you are for His molding. As you go to work today, remember you may be the next worker that God taps to do something marvelous.