Category: Daily Reflections

“When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her son and called him Moses; for she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ ” –Exodus 2:10 Pharaoh’s daughter named Moses. This is very significant because in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, to name a person means to give them their identity. Thus, the Lord often changes the names of people in the Bible. However, the Lord did not change Moses’ name but let him struggle for most of his life with his identity. After God revealed His own name to Moses,...

“Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase.” –Exodus 1:10 We live in a modern-day Egypt. Many groups conspire to stop our increase: doctors, nurses, therapists, talk show hosts, magazine authors, government agencies, groups such as Planned Parenthood, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. At the head of this conspiracy is Satan, who is still dealing shrewdly with God’s people to keep children from being conceived, birthed, and raised to healthy Christian maturity. Shrewd remarks and putdowns may stop increases as effectively as artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Satan has used his pawns to shrewdly attempt to take control...

“In Him…” –Ephesians 1:4, 11, 13 St. Paul is completely preoccupied with being in Jesus. In today’s passage from Ephesians, Paul mentions benefits and blessings that come from being in Jesus numerous times in twelve verses. Paul is underscoring the critical differences of our location: it makes an eternal difference whether we live our life in Jesus or outside of Jesus. Paul proclaims that in Jesus we: have “every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3), have been “chosen” before the world began, to be holy and blameless (Eph 1:4, 11, 13), have been chosen “to be full of love”...

“Can I take the place of God?” –Genesis 50:19 Joseph is a “type” of Jesus, that is, he is an Old Testament figure whose life foreshadows the future coming of the Lord. In a sense, Joseph “took the place of God” in showing forgiveness to those who turned their backs on him (see Gn 50:19). Joseph not only forgave those who hurt him, but he reassured them repeatedly and even provided for them the rest of their lives. We too, in a sense, can take the place of God. As disciples of Jesus, we imitate the Lord in His character...

“The Lord watches over the lives of the wholehearted; their inheritance lasts forever.” –Psalm 37:18 Israel bitterly mourned for his son, Joseph, whom he had to assume to be dead. “Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation, saying, ‘No, I will go down mourning to my son in the nether world.’ Thus did his father lament him” (Gn 37:35). After fifteen years of intense grief, Israel found out that Joseph was alive. “He was dumbfounded; he could not believe them” (Gn 45:26). Israel set out to see Joseph. When Joseph met his father, “he...