You or God?

The story of Joseph and his getting some into slavery is often taught as a story about how God "works all things together for good for those who love him." Which is true. But there is another story line that is sometimes is missed. And that is the story of Joseph's trust in God. But not only his faith but how God grew him through trials. Because I don't think before he was sold into slavery he was the most humble guy. I mean he shared two separate dreams about how his family will bow down to him. Being one of the youngest of a large family I get it. I get the idea of wanting to be greater then my older siblings. But I think that God wanted to teach Joseph something. I think he wanted him to experience a lack of control and to rely completely on God. Cause Jacob (his dad) was a pretty wealthy guy. And we see in Gen 37:3 that "Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons". And even gave him a coat of many colors. He probably had a couple of servants and probably got whatever he wanted from his dad. And as we look at the story, he isn't the one who is out watching the sheep, its his older brothers. He is at home. So this is a little bit of speculation, but I think that Joseph might have been pretty conceited, and a little full of himself. And you know what that means... "God opposed the proud but gives grace to the humble." Now I'm not saying that Joseph was this horrible, awful person who God was going to teach a lesson too. No, that's not the point. He is the point I am trying to make. From our estimation Joseph was a God fearing man. And God wanted to do something great with him. But as will all great people in the bible, God needed them to experience the need. The need for HIM to be the center and their sole reliance. When Joseph went out to check on his brothers, God wasn't like "oh hey i have an idea to humble Joseph" It wasn't a coincidence that Reuben convinced them to not kill him immediately, but to put him in a pit. And it wasn't a coincidence that a caravan just happen to pass them by giving the brothers an opportunity to sell him into slavery. Now this is where the story hinges. Joseph has a choice. He could have been bitter at his brothers, and at God for putting him in that situation. And he had a lot of time to think about it. It was about a 200+ mile journey to get to Egypt from Canaan.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Gen 39:1-2
We see what choice the Joseph made. He allowed this time to be a refining time for him. And to allow God to work within him, and when God is working in us he causes up to prosper. Cause God's plans are so much better then anything we can come up with on our own.

Who is going to run your life? You or God?
Your choice...

Frequency, Equalization, and Gardening

As a lot of you know I enjoy running sound. And while I wouldn't call myself great I think I can hold my own. So in the last year or so I have finally figured out just how EQ works in a sound system and how to make it do what you want it to do. So just so that everyone can understand where I am going with this let me give a quick overview of sound frequency. Basically we can hear sound that range from approx 60hz all the way up to approx 16Khz. If you want to know more about it check out this chart:

So back to why I am explaining all this. So the friend of mine who ended up really teaching me about EQ and how to properly use it explained to me a method of "Subtraction EQ." This method is where you find the frequencies that are bad, feeding back, or are not not supposed to be there and taking them out to just leave the good, clean sound of whatever is being played. 

So this week up at camp we were studying John 15:1-17 in our bible studies. That's the passage that talks about abiding in Christ and how He is the vine and we are the branches. And in verse 2 Jesus is talking and says "Every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." So I was thinking about pruning and I was thinking about subtraction EQ. And I was thinking about how those 2 things were pretty similar when you boiled it down. God takes those areas of our life that are bad, distracting, or are not supposed to be there and cuts them off in the same way that when I heard a bad sound I take it out of the sound mix. Its that refining process that Peter talks about: 

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
~ 1 Peter 1:6-9