Pastor Prince

It's the time of year for Christmas TV shows and movies!  Lots of them talk about "the true meaning of Christmas."  But hardly any of them present the true meaning of Christmas!  One of the few ones that does is "A Charlie Brown Christmas," that premiered in 1965.  I watched it on our black and white TV.  Even then, I was impressed with the scene in which Linus steps on the stage and recites the Christmas story from Luke.   This doesn't mean other specials don't have good points about Christmas.  Who doesn't laugh at "Christmas Vacation"?  Who doesn't get a lump in their throat when they sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life"?  Still, they present a hollowed out Christmas, a Christmas without its essential meaning. This week, we begin our worship teaching unit "Christmas Presence: God with Us."  In this unit, we're going to learn the true true meaning of Christmas

Joseph's story, told in the latter chapters of Genesis, is a remarkable narrative of faith and perseverance.  He overcomes family dysfunction, injustice, and more to become second only to Pharaoh. But his story is more than a lesson in character.  It tells how God worked him to save Israel, and ultimately, the world. The key passage in his story is Genesis 45:5-8.  There, he tells his brothers not to beat themselves up about what they did to him.  God had worked through it all to accomplish a great deliverance.  Had they not sold him into slavery, he wouldn't have been in Egypt, and they would have starved to death.  This part of the story prompts a debate about whether God sends bad things in our lives or he creates good in the bad things in our lives through our faith.  I tend to believe the latter, drawing on Romans 8:28.  God works all things to the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. Beyond the story of saving Israel

Genesis tells us that Joseph found himself in a "pit" a couple of times.  First, when his brothers threw him into one, and second, when Potiphar put him in the dungeon.  Both were literally "low" points of his life!  The first time he was there because of the anger and jealousy of his brothers.  The second time he was there because of the unjust accusations of Potiphar's wife. Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the first pit and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, who, in turn, sold him to Potiphar in Egypt.  Joseph's escape from the second pit was much more involved! Genesis 39:1ff tells how Joseph rose to being in charge of the prison.  Genesis 40:1ff says that Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker were thrown into the same prison. One morning, when he went in to attend them, he found them downhearted. They told him that they had experienced dreams the previous night, and had no one to interpret them.  Joseph offered to help.  He listened

Lemons are sour, and when we have a sour experience, we say we've been handed a bunch of lemons!  One of my favorite sayings is, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  Through God's power, we can take a bad experience and turn it into something good. A Bible character who epitomizes that saying is Joseph.  His story begins in Genesis 37.  In our worship unit, we're going to see how he dealt with lemons in injustice, opportunity, and mercy.  We start with seeing how he experienced lemons in his family life. "Dysfunctional family" is a redundant term!  Every family has a degree of dysfunction.  Joseph's family had more than a little. His father Jacob favored him above his brothers, and that created terrible problems in his family.  Things got so bad, his brothers conspired to kill him.  But they saw a way to get rid of him and make money off him by selling him to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders.  They told their father he had been k