Review God's Providence

I attempted to preach a sermon Sunday from Genesis 50:19-20 entitled "How I Got Over". Joseph taught us that one of the first steps we need to take to is to Release Our Past; however, there are other steps we need to make. Another step we need to make is to Review God's Providence.

The elephant in the room, the unmentioned mentionable, the question that seems to hit the lips of society is when a tragedy hits, when bad things happen, where was/is God? I see it all the time and if you think about it, so do you! An earthquake happens, a mudslide in California takes place, a tsunami in the Orient strikes, a tornado falls in the Midwest and CNN, ABC, FOX NEWS will convene a panel with religious experts engaging in the field of Christian Apologetics trying to explain where was God and why did He allow this to happen?

The consensus of the public is either God does not exist or He does not care. If HE cares, HE is powerless to stop it because after all, bad things can only mean, GOD was not there. Joseph teaches us this concept is not true because he says if you want to know How I Got Over, all you have to do is Review God's Providence.

Without the systematic traditional theological Biblical survey language, Providence simply is "To Go Before" and "To see After". The story of Joseph suggests this is true and he begs us just to Review God's Providence. The phrase "The Lord was with Joseph" becomes a common thread woven through the tapestry of Joseph's testimony.

Even when he was sold he was still secure because God was with him. When he was with Potiphar, he still prospered because God was with him. In problems, he is still promoted because God is with him. While enduring fabrications and falsifications, God still shows favor by letting Joseph go to "The King's Prison". In prison, God is still with Joseph, when others forget, God remembers and in due season, Joseph is positioned in the place God has arraigned from the beginning because God will go before and see after.

When we Review our life, it is tempting to say God has forgotten about us. Death, loss of friends and family, pink slips and over draft notices can make you say Where is God? We mistakenly believe that "favor" is the absence of problems. God should stop the factory from shutting down. God should prevent my doctor from giving me a bad report on the MRI. God should stop my family member from dying but favor is not the absence of problems but rather it is the prosperity of God's children even through problems because GOD has gone before and seen after.

I am reviewing God's Providence. God was there when General Motors closed down on February 24, 2006. He went before and Saw after so on June 26, 2006, General Motors in Arlington, Texas offered me another job. I walked away as the assistant to the Pastor of the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church on the fifth Sunday December 31st, 2006 but because God went before and saw after Easter Sunday Morning April 6th, 2008, I became the Pastor of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. When I walked away from the provisions and the protection of General Motors, The Lord has Gone before and Saw after and provided my buy-out parachute to allow me to work full-time as a Pastor.

As you read this blog, you may be tempted to think that 2010 was a bad year. You may think that God forgot you, abandoned you or left you all by yourself. I invite you to slow down, sit sown and write down all the bad things that happened in your life in 2010, I bet you will discover that God was there all the time.

Review God's Providence,

Owens

A Great Book on the Providence of God is by D. A. Carson, "The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God's Story", not systematic or theological but a character driven devotional walk through the Bible on the Providence of God. Good read.

Release Your Past

How I Got Over! How I got Over! My Soul Looks back and wonders How I Got Over! I wanna Thank Him because He brought me, I wanna thank Him because He taught me, I wanna thank Him because He kept me, I wanna Thank Him because He never left me. I gonna sing Hallelujah, I gonna shout troubles over, I gonna thank God for being so good to me.

Whatever version you sing or singer you listen to, Mahalia, Aretha or Vickie the words are still powerful and inspiring. On this last Sunday of the year, I can not help but look back on what God has done for me in 2010. I realize that we have been trained that this song is to be sung when we cross over to the other side but I realized this song can be sung now because it is a song of reflection and remembrance.

Time and vocabulary limit me from saying all I could say about how good God has been to me this year so I brought a witness. His name is Joseph. The dreamer who saw his future but didn't understand all of what he saw. The boy that was cast in a pit, sold for a profit, was accosted by the first "Cougar" in the Bible, Potiphar's wife, thrown into prison but ultimately was elevated next to Pharaoh. Joseph can tell us How to make it Over.

Joseph tells us the first thing we need to do in order to make it over is to RELEASE YOUR PAST. Some people can never move into the future because they are held hostage by their past, what happened to them, who lied on them, who mistreated them. Every time they see the person they review and remember so instead of releasing their past, they REHEARSE THEIR PAIN. They live life as a perpetual victim instead of the promised victor.

No one would have been angry with Joseph if he told his brothers off. It would be expected. After all, they plotted against him. After all, the cast him in a pit, they sold him for a profit. But Joseph doesn't do this, instead he Releases His past. He says, "God did this, and not you. He sent me ahead of you to preserve you, to secure a remnant".

In saying this, Joseph is no longer the Victim but rather he is the Victor. Someone reading this needs to Release their Past. All of us have family that mistreated us; people who have lied on us; acquaintances who ate and drank in our presence while we had nothing, but God allowed this to happen, not to destroy us but to develop us.

When you have become free from you past, you live in that freedom. Have you ever met someone who describes to you something that happened to them? In their description, their breathing changes, their voice becomes elevated, the color either leaves or changes in their faces. You can tell they have become disturbed. The amazing part of this is they are describing something that happened 10 years ago but because they have never let it go, it sounds like it just happened yesterday.

When they see the person, they walk the other direction, frown up, become upset, even leave church, because they are still the Victim. They make future relationships pay for past ones. They refuse to accept future blessing because of past disappointments but God wants us to follow Joseph's example and free ourselves into victory by releasing our past.

I have written too much and hopefully will synthesize this by the time I preach it as this is just the first point but I leave the blog with this: Look at you body. All of us have a scar! Somewhere! There is a place where we fell, were struck or cut, scratched or scraped that left evidence.

When you point to the scar, you remember the story. You remember what happened. You remembered you cried, the blood, etc. However, what you can not remember is the Pain. You remember there was pain, but somehow the pain of the event is gone. If it wasn't then every time you remembered the event, you would cry, but the pain is gone.

That's what God does for us when we RELEASE OUR PAST. We remember the event, we remember the experience but we live in the Emancipation FROM the event. We are no longer a VICTIM TO but rather we are VICTORS FROM.

Yes, we have scars, yes we have wounds, yes we have evidence of battles, scrapes and dust-ups but God has freed us. Now our scars are our testimony, I am free, You meant to kill me, you tried to destroy, the scar is the proof you meant it for my evil but God meant it for my good.

I am going to the pulpit and pray this works out but I am shouting because God just gave me something that I didn't write. FOR ALL MY SCARS GOD HAS GIVE ME SOMETHING BETTER THAN COCOA BUTTER, I AM COVERED BY HIS BLOOD.

HEY GLORY, KEEP RUNNING

Owens