Bible Study 5-8-15

I've been reading through Exodus lately and the Lord showed me this great little nugget this morning.  In Exodus chapter 35 Moses has just returned from his second forty day and forty night visit with God on the mountain and he gathers the children of Israel together and starts giving instruction on what they need to do to build the tabernacle.  We are going to pick up in verse 30:

30And Moses said to the children of Israel, "See, the LORD has called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled hime with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship," (Exodus 35:30-31, NKJV)

God gives us talents.  These talents God gives us are not for our sole pleasure.  They are given to honor, praise and worship God.  They are given to complete a work God has intended for us to do.  Lets move on the verse 34.

34"And He has put in his heart the ability to teach..." (Exodus 35:34, NKJV)

God has another purpose for these talents.  They are given to be able to teach others.  My prayer this morning is that He would help me to remember this.  Whether it is business management, cajon playing, discipling, whatever, that he would help me to honor Him by passing along and teaching what He has given me as talents.  

He could have easily put His Spirit in a bunch of other people to get this work done, but that is not God's goal.  Bezaleel is going to die one day.  What is going to happen when he dies?  The tabernacle will most likely need repairs and such as it makes its journey through the wilderness.  God could easily put His Spirit in someone new, but that is not His purpose for talents.  It is for us to pass along.  To invest in people and teach them, which is why He gave Bezaleel an ability to teach.  God's goal has and always will be to invest in people, and He wants His people to invest in people.  This is further shown in His direction to His disciples in the great commission right before His ascension in Matthew 28.  

19"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you..." (Matthew 28:19-20)

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Bible Study 2-28-15

My bible study time has taken me through Genesis, and through the last week or so I have been reading about Joseph.  Joseph was an interesting dude.  He was a tattle tale, which can be noted in Genesis 37:2 -

"This is the genealogy of Jacob.  Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers.  And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives;  and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father."  (NKJV)

Joseph was also very proud and played on his father's favoritism of him.  This can be seen through his explanation of his dreams to his family.  If you read through Genesis 37:5-11, Joseph discusses two dreams he has with his family, in a very pompous fashion in my opinion, and how they will all bow down to him at some point in their lives.  Now God is not a fan of pride, especially when a gift He has blessed you with is used in a very prideful way.  Joseph needed to be knocked down a few pegs and this was done through his brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt.  In Egypt, God placed Joseph in Potiphar's house, who was an officer for Pharaoh.  Joseph learned humility quickly being sold into slavery and serving in Potiphar's house.  I believe it was in Potiphar's house that his pride was torn away and it opened up his ability to have a meaningful relationship with God.  This can be seen through the favor he found with Potiphar and being made overseer of his house and all that he had.  A responsibility I don't believe God would have given him had his pride not been in check.  We can also see Joseph's relationship with God in his ability to resist temptation.  Potiphar's wife wanted to have sex with Joseph, but Joseph wanted nothing to do with it, he refused.

"8But he refused and said to his master's wife, 'Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand.  9There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife.  How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'"  (Geneses 39:8-9, NKJV)

Her advances persisted and Joseph continued to refuse.  He in fact fled from her so fast that he ran out of the coat he was wearing and she was left holding.  This caused Joseph to end up in prison because Potiphar's wife was offended and made up a story that he raped her using his coat as evidence.  This was obviously an unfortunate occurrence for Joseph, but it shows that when we take stands for God and are committed to obedience in His word it is not without it's fair share of ridicule and persecution.

While in prison, Joseph again ascended the ranks through favor he found and God showing mercy in his life.  While having his hand over all the prisoners he came across Pharaoh's chief butler and baker.  While they were in prison, he was able to use the gift God gave them and interpret their dreams.  I love what he says before he gives the interpretations:

"8And they said to him, 'We each have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.'  And Joseph said to them, 'Do not interpretations belong to God?  Tell them to me please.'"  (Genesis 40:8, NKJV)

He says something similar in front of Pharaoh when having to interpret his dreams:

"So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying 'It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.'"  (Genesis 41:16, NKJV)

Why do I love that he said these things?  Joseph was not afraid to give credit where credit is due even in the work place.  God gave him a gift and he made sure people knew that his success had nothing to do with him, and it was all God.    

Joseph was quickly made ruler over all of Egypt.  The only greater being Pharaoh.  There then ends up being seven years of great abundance followed by seven years of great famine, and God used Joseph to stock pile in those seven years of abundance to ensure there was no death in the seven years of famine.  While speaking to his brothers after they have come to buy food from Egypt, Joseph says to them:

"7And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  8So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."  (Genesis 45:7-8, NKJV)

God's plan from the beginning of Joseph's life was to use him to keep his family alive during this famine.  This was essential considering Joseph and his 11 brothers would be responsible for the reproducing the entire nation of Israel.  God's plan will always come through and sometimes it takes some ironing out wrinkles and chiseling off rough edges on our part before that can happen.  We see that in Joseph's life as he was fully aware as ruler of Egypt that he had nothing to do with it, and it was God who orchestrated his position there.  

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Mission Trip to Mexico

This summer I will be going over to Monterrey, Mexico from July 11, 2015 through July 18, 2015 with a team from my church, Crosstown Chapel, where will be helping with church construction and build outs along with a vacation bible school which will spread the gospel and show the love of Christ to children in the area.

I am really excited about this mission opportunity and hope you can see the value in what our team will accomplish. I felt God's calling to this trip almost immediately. Ever since my mission trip to the Bahamas a couple of years ago, I've been clamoring for another opportunity to showcase God's love to people outside of my home comforts and encourage those missionaries who spend countless hours ministering to people and spreading the gospel to the regions God has called them to.

As you can imagine, a trip like this requires financial support. The first deadline to turn in monies is February 22nd for $100. After that, I will need to raise $750 by June 1, 2015. If you could support me in a financial way I would be very grateful. If you know my heart, you know this is a very tough thing for me to ask of you.

More importantly than your financial support, I need your prayer support. Prayer is the fuel that will allow us to be successful as we follow God’s leading in the various ministries that we will be involved in. Without prayer, nothing will happen.

If you would like to be a part of this mission through your financial support, send a check to:

Crosstown Chapel
1498 SE Preston Lane
Port St. Lucie, FL, 34983

Please make your check payable to Crosstown Chapel, and write "Mission Trip - J.R. Koch" on a separate piece of paper. All contributions are tax deductible.

Much Love,

J.R.

"Where God guides, God provides!"

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It's Been So Long...

Wow.  I need to get my act together.  I did not realize it has been that long since my last post.  Life has been indeed busy, and I have not made the proper adjustments in my schedule to ensure consistency here.  However, due to the Lord giving me insight on how to better manage my time I will hopefully be able to be a bit more regular.  For those that follow and read, thank you for your patience and grace.

I have been reading through Genesis, particularly the story of Abraham this past week.  Abraham is referred to by Paul as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11.  One of the defining moments of Abraham's life is in Genesis 22:2.

"And He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."  (Genesis 22:2, NKJV)

If you don't know the story, Abraham heeds God's command and takes his son to Moriah, takes him up to the mountains, ties him to an altar, and just as he is about to sacrifice him the Angel of the LORD calls to him and says:

"And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." (Genesis 22:12, NKJV)

A ram is then seen caught in some thorns and becomes a replacement sacrifice for Isaac.

First thing I want to point out here is in verse 2.  This is the first time LOVE is mentioned in the bible.  This is also the first time God asked a man to make such a great sacrifice.  The two go hand in hand.  True sacrifice is not done begrudgingly.  It is not done for ulterior motives.  True sacrifice takes true love, and it takes true love on both sides.  On one side it's a sacrifice because, in this case, Abraham is having to sacrifice someone he probably loves more than anything in this world (next to Sarah).  It's a sacrifice because of the immense heartache it is going to cause him if he has to go all the way with it.  On the other side, Abraham loves God more and if this is what God is asking him to do than he has no choice but to trust that God knows what He is doing.  This is also where Abraham becomes know for his faith.

Throughout his life, God has been guiding him and leading him.  God asked Abraham to move from his homeland to the future land of Israel.  By faith, Abraham makes the move.  Lot, Abraham's nephew, is taken captive in a war that breaks out between surrounding nations.  Abraham hears the news and takes 318 of his trained servants that were born in his house (God's blessing was truly on this guy), attacks and pursues Lot's captures, recovers all the stolen goods, the women and people, and of course Lot.  This is shown to be a testament of faith that God was going to give him victory here because he honors God by tithing immediately following this battle to the priest king of Salem, Melchizedek.  Now onto the call to sacrifice Isaac.  Early in God's and Abraham's relationship, God told him that He was going to make him a great nation through his seed and all his descendants will be as sand on the seashore (innumerable, in case you wondering about the reference).  God later defines that the seed of Israel will come from Abraham and Sarah.  Granted they were old (really old), but God delivered on the promise with the birth of Isaac.  Seeing what God has already done in his life, Abraham was able to answer the call to sacrifice his son, because he knew one thing.  God promised him that he would have an innumerable amount of descendants.  With only having the one son with Sarah, one of two things was going to have to happen.  God was going to bless him with another son if he had to sacrifice this one, or God was going to bless him with a replacement sacrifice, and looking at the text Abraham was expecting and received the latter.

What we have to know about faith is that it takes action.  In the book of James it says, "Faith without works is dead".  I can look at chair and say I have faith it will hold me up, but I have to sit in the chair in order to show I have the faith I say I do.    

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