Be Thou An Example

                              Be Thou An Example Like Joseph                                                                        Noah Olson One Biblical Character that I love to go to for an example is Joseph. Looking back at his life we can see that he was one who was faithful unto the almighty God. I want to look at 3 different things today. Temptation, Forgiveness, and Love. As we look at Joseph's example, let us try to mirror our example to one faithful character. Joseph throughout his life was faced with many trials. He was faced with the hatred of his brothers, (Gen 37:4) the betrayal of his brothers by beating him and selling him(Genesis 37:12-36), and being asked to commit fornication twice.(Gen 39:7-12) But throughout all of this, he found grace in God's eyes.(Gen 39:4)  With the examples shown, he resisted the temptation and followed what God would have him to do.. (Gen 39:9). Are we willing to face temptation like Joseph? Are we willing to resist the devil?

Thomas Edison once said “The secret of success is focus of purpose.” This is true for the Christian today. If we are going to succeed in religion, and if we are going to receive that crown of life at then end of our lives, then we must have a purpose -we must have a goal in our mind constantly.  In Hebrews 12:1-2, the Hebrews writer said “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset  us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of  our  faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  The writer said again, “let us run ... the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus....” Whenever you drive at night, do you use your headlights? Whenever you drive in unfamiliar locations, do you use your Siri? Whenever we drive,

When we get baptized and become Christians, we gave ourselves fully to God. We sing the song at camp Pierce My Ear, “Pierce my ear, o Lord, my God. Take me to your door this day. For I will serve no other God. Lord, I’m here to stay.” . It comes from Exodus 21:2-6. That is an example of how we should be as Christians. When we make that commitment, much like the servant, it’s for life. Some have said that Ivan the great went to go be married, under one condition, that he be baptized. When the 500 soldiers he took with him heard this, they decided to be baptized too, but they were unsure on what to do since they knew if they were Christians, they couldn’t carry on being the bloodthirsty warriors they were. So, they came up with a solution. When the priest went down into the water with them, the soldiers drew their swords and held them above the water. They wanted to give themselves to God, but not all of themselves. They didn’t wanna give up their past or the lives they were living. Ps

I think a lot of times we “water down” parts of the Bible because we teach them to children. Zacchaeus is one that I noticed recently I didn’t know much about. I knew stuff about him, but mainly just the stuff we sing in the song as kids. Even when reading through it, it seems like the mentality most times is that it’s just a “kid’s story” and miss out on a lot of the details we can learn from. (Luke 19:1-10) We see here that he was a tax collector. If you look back at how tax collectors were at the time, you see that they were hated among most, if not all, people. They were given what to tax the people by the Roman government and only they knew what that number was, so often times, they would overcharge people and keep the extra money for themselves. And seeing as it says that Zacchaeus was rich, that could have been what he did. We see that he still wanted to see Jesus. When Jesus saw him and said that He would come to his house, we see the reaction from the people in the crowd. Th