I love the way how Genesis ended, with Joseph reconciling with his siblings, seeing they were worried he would hate them now that Jacob was gone (but never forgotten; the reunion between him and Joseph must’ve helped him repent from his sins — again, see Matthew 8:11). Thank God I wasn’t going to do that when I got my first apartment in 2012! I even figured it might help my mom become Christian, but sadly, if you know how events turned out for me after that, she took my forgiveness for granted more than once. I won’t go into it today, though. I just pray no one else I know does this even after I’m dead. Oh, right, I can’t expect that to happen… and besides, I find it difficult to focus on Jesus whenever someone preaches almost anything from the Bible, even in a church like Two Rivers. I think hateful correction still has a tight grip on biblical growth for me… I can now see that this kind of thing is fleshly and actually not as strong as Jesus is, but offence can stay His hand a lot, sometimes for many years. But we can’t get greedy for the supernatural… you know? Oh, this passage is found in page 31 of my NKJV Bible, page 40 of my NASB Bible, page 69 of my VOICE copy, and pages 66-67 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy. I’ll go read the VOICE version really quick…
Hmmm… this is interesting! In verse 23, it says that Joseph adopted some of his great-grandchildren — they were born to Mashir, who had been born to Manasseh — what happened to him before Joseph died? He wasn’t yet 80! (Remember that Joseph had turned 30 before Manasseh was born, start at chapter 37 and keep going until his sons’ births are mentioned.) And 80 is a good age to live past in today’s world, for we have a lot of medicine today, as opposed to 1945 before World War II ended. Thank God history didn’t repeat itself! But we see that God’s name is being taken in vain more than ever now, 75 years later, due to COVID-19 and the terrible atheism that helped it spread throughout the world people call “evangelicalism.” Weird, huh? But even though I know the mark of the beast will be implemented soon, I won’t have to take it and be spiritually destroyed; that cannot happen to anyone who loves Jesus, so I’m going to spend a little more time on these Bible notes each week, God-willing. Oh, and my roommate and friend, Jonathan, is heading to Colorado for vacation, so I pray he’s doing ok there, and that the weed and drugs don’t get to him. (He’ll be in Denver, and the airport there is full of demonic and satanic things. It’s even shaped like a swastika! Total godlessness if I’ve ever seen it, so I’d rather drive there instead of fly if I was given an opportunity to go to Colorado again. I don’t want to go to that airport 😓😧😰 I rebuke the evilness there, actually…) oh, well, anyway, he’ll be out of Arizona for a week and I hope I can talk to him while he’s there over the phone, but I pray he has fun with his brother there. Also, I love how there’s one final note after the book ends about the Israelites awaiting the promise from God, which… since promises from Him always involve pain sooner or later, I’m not sure I can face anything again, even if I’m walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit the whole time. Christians aren’t masochists, you know. (The promise-from-God-always-involves-pain-from-something truth I found out last Thursday night hearing a testimony from the retreat last weekend. I went to Prescott, it was a fun time, but I still find it difficult to focus when I hear almost anything from even a good church, so I don’t know what I should do about this… I could go on.) Maybe pain of any kind always comes from sinfulness in this world? You can tell me anything about this in the comments (or in a message, I don’t mind that, either).
I wish I could look forward to more promises that make things better, especially if they result in someone’s salvation! And God’s kingdom will never shrink from this world plus the heavens, so I’m like, “This is pretty cool!” But for now, I’ll just meditate on the fact that I finally managed to finish writing notes on this book after nearly two years! I’ll write a short retrospective about this soon (probably in the next few hours) and until then, I’m out. In the meantime, you can write me an e-mail requesting prayer at ron.outland4727@gmail.com! I’ll read each one, write them down, then tape them to my bedroom walls! I don’t think I’ve gotten any still, but you can write me something to pray for (no hate mail, please). I’ll see you later tonight with the retrospective, then in the future, we’ll move on to Exodus! (Spoiler alert: it’s a very hard book, and you’ll no doubt be confused as to what some of its phrases mean.) Later, guys!
Ron And His Stories 