Life is a B

Life seems like it should be easier. Making decisions should simplier.

Pissed off

I'm pissed off because the last few days it seems like everything is get Fbombed. In the middle of a chat with someone (Mercy) I get kick off it and can't get back in. I trying to get together with someone online and not working out and I think she thinks I'm doing it on propose. I just want a day to go smoothly. Piss me off when everyone thinks I need to see a councilor but when ask about what they are talking the don't have time to talk about it. Hard to deal with something if they don't tell me what it is.

Joseph

Why is Joseph so Important to the Story of Jesus?

Ever wonder why Joseph is even mentioned in the story of Christ Jesus? I have off on for years

but never really gave it any thought. Then one a few weeks ago I was talking with a guy at work and somehow the topic came up. The Holy Spirit pointed out that back in the Biblical days a bride to be family would receive a dowery for the woman. To that is a representative of Christ buying His bride and at the same time bring her up from slavery. Women then were seen as property then, a good many I'm sure working like slaves for their fathers. No matter how hard she worked she would never be seen as a real daughter.

So by use of the dowery a groom was able to raise her out of that state and put her in control of half his home or life. (There something there about Joseph in Egypt there but will have to wait.) The grateful wife would submit to her husband because of what he did for her not because he was a man. The Proverb 31 wife is a good example of this, she was willing to work hard and gain much for her family with the knowledge that it was going to make her husband look more successful. She give her earning to him to do as he pleased and he would give it back her for herself. As the Bride of Christ that is the way we should be, working to give Him the praise and glory for everything in our life without thinking what He is going to do with it.

Then I thought wait we are called the children of God too, so how could this represent the Church and even more Christians, since Christianity is more about relationship then where we do it. What if Mary was the Church that had a child, from whatever, most Jews wouldn't except him as their own. However, Joseph did with a little bit of fear. He would be taking a chance of lose business, not being worthy to sit in the city gates (place of honor) and a chance that his family and friends wouldn't even acknowledge him as someone they knew or as a live.

What a powerful thought to think of Joseph as being a example of Jesus and Abba, Father God. If Mary is the Church, Bride of Christ, which we are part of, what does that mean for us as the children of God. Joseph told Mary that he would adopt the baby Jesus as his own. That is what Jesus did for us when He said that He want the Church to be His bride. We were adopted before we even knew that we needed it. Joseph, knew that it would be easy and to some degree he would have to forget how this Child came about and just think of Him as his own and raise Him just as he would any other child.

Jesus, knew how we are the children of sin came from and He had to be willing forgive and forget. If Christ wasn't willing to think of us as His own, how could Abba look at us as He children? Mary, represent the old traditions and Christ represents the new tradition. The old traditions are the ways we learned things before Christ and accepted as truths. They are things that are not totally false but just like what happened to Eve in the Garden. She was shown something not complete from the correct perspective and it sounded close enough that she didn't stop to consider it. Old tradition doesn't want us to think anything through, just accept it as truth. That is why Cain's offering wasn't acceptable to the Lord was because he thought he was doing enough or in the right spirit that the Lord would accept it.

There is a teaching in the Church about the First Fruits and Tithe, which are the same thing. This teaching says that if you give your tithe Christ will bless you. The problem with that teaching is that a tithe isn't really a gift in the same way that an offering is. Tithing is giving what belongs to the Owner and an offering is giving of ourselves. The Bible says that Abel brought of the best of the First Fruits and Cain just brought some of his crop. The Owner desires the best because He is allowing us to use His equipment to produce that whatever. Joseph offered to the Creator the First Fruits of his marriage and family.

What an offering on Joseph's part, to willing to give his wife's-to-be womb to used by a dying Man to have a Child. He was willing to give up the honeymoon for someone else. Honeymoons then are no where what a honeymoon is today, now it is like maybe a couple of weeks (if that); however, then it was a year. Honeymoons then where so the couple could get to know each other without the distraction of life infecting their marriage before it got started. The good part of the honeymoon for man was that not only was it meant to be a sexual experience but also a way to communicate with his new wife. We probably can't even imagine what is was like for Joseph; however, he was stronger than most guys today. He was willing not to sex with her until Jesus was born. He deserves a place of great honor because he had the courage to accept her pregnant, which everyone knew, and then not to have sexual relations with her until He was born. What grace and mercy was give to him. I couldn't imagine not even thinking about the sexual relations because that would mean everything except kissing. Wouldn't you have liked to be a fly on the wall in that house until Jesus was born.

Did Joseph and Mary have the “Pink Cloud” that they say most people go through in early marriage? My “Pink Cloud” last about 3 or 4 hours after the wedding, that is for something else. Was there a lot frustration voiced in that house especially at night? Maybe Joseph thought it would be easier to go ahead and work instead of doing this honeymoon thing. At least if I'm working energy, generated by the frustration, could be focused for something good. I would imagine that there wasn't much shouting because it was during that time that the Prince of Peace would of learned some peace before the birth. There might not have been much strife in their home because that allows a child to grow-up with less aggression in their lives so the chance for sin was lessened for Jesus. Could I have been Joseph? I know that I couldn't be, what about you?