It's a peaceful Sabbath afternoon and I'm sitting around with my friends who are half singing and half napping - at the same time. I'm half singing, half blogging. ^^
Today for church the preacher spoke about faith. I heard the first few sentences and then my mind went down a completely different track and started telling me my own sermon.
The passage was Hebrews 11: 22 "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones."
I started thinking about faith and Joseph's bones and the prophecy that was made that the children of Isreal would come out of Egypt after 400 years. (Genesis 15:18 "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;")
The only point of the Pastors sermon that I remember was the fact that of all the events in Joseph's life the one that was remembered as the greatest example of Joseph's faith was the fact that he believed God's promise - even though he knew it would be around 400 years before it would be fulfilled.
I was thinking about the prophecy and the fact that as it came time for the Isrealites to leave Egypt, according to the prophecy, they would have been counting down the years and looking at their circumstances - which went from bad to worse. And they would have thought it was impossible for them to be released. And then God showed up with Moses right on time and released them, regardless of circumstances. In fact the circumstances made His deliverance even more impressive. Proving to the Isrealites that He was a God of supreme power. Sadly the were quick to forget this.
Then I started thinking about Pharaoh and how he also would probably have known about the prophecy. But that when Moses turned up, right on time, and asked "Let my people go" Pharaoh decided to defy God and have a kind of god contest. And God showed him that He (God) was more powerful than all the Egyptian gods.
All of that made me think about how God is faithful and how we can trust His promises.
And then I started thinking about divorce. This week two of my friends told me they are either divorcing or seperating from their partners. And of course that leads me to think about getting married which is something I actually would rather like to do in the future. But when you see other people breaking up, it makes a person rethink that desire.
One thing I know though - while I don't trust my own ability to choose well, I CAN trust God. I CAN trust that He will lead and guide and that He will pick well for me. Because He has promised to lead and keep me in the right path. Isaiah 30:21 says "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."
Years and years ago when I first thought about getting married I prayed and asked God for an impossible sign, that he would use to let me know who was the right person for me to marry. Actually at the time I think at the back of my head I thought that that would keep me safe and I would never have to marry.
After I decided I really did want to marry I struggled about whether to keep my impossible sign or to disregard it and just make my own choice and take my chances. I also struggled with the whole idea of the validity of signs.
I have come to two conclusions; one is that if I go back on my request now it is saying that I don't really trust God. Either I don't trust that God is intimately involved with my life, or I don't trust God to choose well for me. Since I do trust God on both these counts I can not discard my sign. I will admit that it has been a struggle to come to the point where I can honestly say that. And I am glad for the struggle.
My second conclusion is about the validity of requesting a sign from God. I was reading my Bible one day and stumbled across this passage in Isaiah 7: 10-11 "Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above." In this story Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign so then God says 'ok then I'll just give you a sign, a virgin will have a son.' After I read that I no longer questioned the Biblical correctness of asking for signs. One thing I did note though is that the sign God gave was impossible for man or chance. Only God could fulfill that sign. So then I had to re-evaluate, is my sign too easy? Quite honestly I can say that it is something that only God can arrange. When I marry I will know that God has chosen the man and approves. :-) and I won't marry if God doesn't bring about the sign.
And that lead me back to the sermon - well my thoughts about the sermon - which kind of ended up in the same place as the Pastor - faith - it is believing that God keeps His promises, regardless of appearances or circumstances.
And that was the end of the sermon, which brings me back to a lovely sunny summer afternoon. Which is now gone.
And sadly summer is fast coming to an end too, this Monday is Chuseok here is Korea. A time when Koreans get together with their families and basically celebrate a kind if harvest festival. Sometimes they even get dressed up in traditional clothes.
My next adventure will be tomorrow :-) (Sunday) I'm heading to one of my Korean friends homes in the country. I think I've chosen my route cleverly to avoid the worst of the traffic ... But only time will tell. Will I actually get to my destination? Or will I be stuck in traffic the entire day as every Korean in the country attempts to return to their hometown? And since half of them live in Seoul the roads out of Seoul are notoriously terrible!!!! I'll let you know the outcome tomorrow.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll also post the photos of my last adventure. A month ago I went to the Philippines for a friends wedding. It was exciting, colourful, chaotic and loud. It felt as if I was standing under a sensory fire hose and being drenched in new experiences, I loved it. But I will admit to feeling relief when I arrived back in Korea - the feeling of order, quiet and peace. Which is rather funny considering that when I first arrived in Korea I thought it too was chaotic and loud. I really want to visit the Philippines again, but I don't think I could live there.
Now this is finally finished - we'll as finished as it's going to get - there is always another story I could add, but it is late in the evening, so I will bid you good night and pleasant dreams and wonderful adventures tomorrow.
xoxoxo
