The Joseph Principle

When we live in vital connection and dependence on God, we bless people around us...like Joseph did in the house of Potiphar. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. Genesis 39:5

You are the everyday miracle for people around you in your family, your class, your work, your neighborhood. You make life better by being.

BE!

Cars I've Owned

I don’t know what it is about me…but cars have never been a desirable status symbol! Perhaps it was that I grew up riding in classics…like a ‘48 Nash Rambler (that broke down in New York on our 1956 road trip) or the 54 Studebaker that looked like an F8 fighter jet…but smoked like one being shot down. Maybe it was that I valued people more than things, or maybe it was that I took seriously Matthew 6:33… But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So, I never made owning a “hot” car a status symbol. Cars have always been a tool to get me somewhere, not to make an impression on others. Because of this, I’m famous for buying ugly. I’ve owned some beauties in my day. There was the ’69 Plymouth Valiant that I bought…country green. It was so bad that a friend who worked at a dealership volunteered to have it painted. I asked for Robin’s Egg blue, but because it was a VW dealership, I got Rabbit Blue—you’d never miss me in town! And there is the vehicle I own at present…with a topcoat that looks like a peeling sunburn.

Yet, I’ve owned some fantastic cars in my day: a ‘57 Chevy; a ’79 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird (platinum gray with the red and black bird on the hood and a huge engine); a ’68 Mustang. The Matthew 6:33 thing about them is that I never bought a single one of them. They were all pretty much given to me.

When I became a pastor, I pretty much gave up having things because of Mathew 6:33. Yet, God has given us a very nice home with a view and this continual string of nice cars, just to keep His word in that verse.

Some of you would notice, however, that for most of those vehicles the ownership is past tense. This is because of my practical and conservative nature. The ’57 Chevy morphed into a ’64 Valiant because it was a big V8 with an automatic transmission. The ‘79 TransAm became too expensive to insure and was transformed into a Dodge Caravan, much more practical for hauling around a family of 5 (and much to the chagrin of our son). Now, the ’68 Mustang…it still lives in our garage and is waiting for a new engine!

I’m not completely brain dead!

The Joseph Principle

I call it the Joseph Principle or the Spill-over principle: God’s blessing on our lives spill over into the lives of those around us. God blesses the person who doesn’t follow Him because of His blessing on the lives of those who do. A corollary is: God blesses our families because He blesses us.

Actually, this was true before Joseph. Isaac had been a blessing to Abimelech in Gerar—God provided many wells for him through Isaac’s efforts (Genesis 26). Laban realized that God had blessed him because of Jacob’s work on his ranch (Genesis 30:27). And in Genesis 39:5 it says, 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field

Of course, this spillover principle in Joseph’s life is seen also in Genesis 45.. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, `Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, 18 and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.'

God blessed just about everywhere Joseph went and whatever he did, and this blessing spilled over into many other lives around him.

It’s all about spillover. God blesses people around us because He blesses us. They get blessed because we are in their lives, their businesses, their neighborhoods.

Christian employees bless the companies in which they work because they are working for Jesus, not the boss (Ephesians 6:5-8). Christian bosses bless their employees because they recognize that God is the real boss (Ephesians 6:9). And, even though we may not have an answer to whether God will answer the prayers of those who aren’t Christ-followers, we, as Christ-followers, can certainly spill over into their lives by bringing their needs to God…and God does hear the prayer of the Christ-Follower.

Several years ago a young wife began attending church with her husband. He was a Christ follower. She was not. Carol engaged her in conversation and discovered that she was concerned about her horse’s health (she did dressage). So, Carol said she would pray for her horse. A couple weeks later, Carol asked her how her horse was doing. The young wife was so moved that Jesus would lead a Christian to pray for her horse that she began to follow Jesus right then.

Apply the Joseph Principle. Find a need for your not-yet-following friend and begin praying for it. God just might pour enough of His love into your life that it spills over into someone else.

Posers and Competitors

"Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews
MT 2:3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
Curious, isn’t it, that when the magi came looking for the one who was born king of the Jews, everyone knew the king wasn’t Herod, including Herod, the sitting king! It would have been just as easy for Herod to say, “Well, open your eyes. You’re looking at him!” (after all, he had been born, just not born a king. He was a made king). Herod knew he was a poser and not the real thing. It showed in his insecure, devious, destructive, jealous nature.

A “poser” driven insecurity feeds a desire to eliminate the competition. If the other person wins, they might take over, and you would lose your position, power, or possessions. If Herod were the genuine article, the true leader, he would have acted like it by opening the door to the next king, by pointing people toward God’s provision. True leadership develops and promotes others more than self. Herod wasn’t a true king. The true king was in the manger in Bethlehem, while the false king was in the palace, counting out his money. Herod’s posing was revealed by his jealous, competitive, insecure nature. Jealousy and posing go together with competition and insecurity.

The first step to making way for the true king in our lives is to recognize I’m not the king and to stop acting like I am, to stop pretending. True greatness is to recognize I am designed to develop others, and to lift them up to where they belong and grow smaller myself. A competitive, I-want-to-win spirit is indicative of insecurity, indicative of a self-centered focus. It betrays me as a poser, not a true leader. Developing and helping others to win, even take over, is the way to greatness, to true leadership.

When I was 14, my little brother J was making a valiant effort to capture my king in chess. This time it was more than a valiant effort, he had maneuvered into a winning position. But, before he could make the final move, the chess board got bumped and all the pieces fell over. I was off the hook. To this day I still don’t know whether that chess board got bumped by my brother’s excitement at an impending win, or by my Herod-like posing as the superior big brother (or was it big “bother”).

I’m still fiercely competitive in games. Maybe it’s time I grew up and became less competitive in games and more of a developer rather than just posing as a winner.

A Christmas Sign for 2009

12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:12

We make much of the miracles of Jesus…signs that point us to His Deity, to His power, to His capacity to manage to forgive us and change our lives. But, this was the first sign of Jesus. Luke uses the same word John uses in 2:11 for his first miracle. Yes, the first sign of Jesus was not an obvious miracle of power…but it was a miracle.

The first sign of Jesus was a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The Messiah, The Son of God…Weakness, poverty, and residing in a barn because no one had room for Him.

This didn’t seem like a miracle. This seemed like an everyday occurrence. Yet, it was a miracle that everyone missed except the shepherds. How can God be weak? How can the King of Kings be poor? And how can He be found in a barn? This is the first sign of Jesus, one which most people overlook as a sign: that God can appear in the most unlikely places in our lives; that God can show up in our weakest and smelliest problems; that God can show up when we aren’t wanted and no one moves over and makes a space for us. That’s a miracle.

And, once we recognize the miracle that God can show up in weakness, in poverty, and in the smelly, dirty places of our lives, we will never be the same. Luke 2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Yes, people return to their everyday tasks from Christmas, but a distinct note of praise and joy is mixed into the everyday after that experience with God. Like the shepherds, when we discover God in the weak, smelly, dirty places of our lives, we forever have a tinge of joy in our everyday lives.

My Prayer for you this Christmas Day: that you will mix joy and praise into your everyday because you’ve made room in your schedule for seeing Jesus.

Lights And Carols

It’s easy to see the connection between Christmas and light…if you live in the northern hemisphere! Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. Daylight is shortened. It’s cold, bleak, dreary…in the northern hemisphere. We yearn for the light of spring and summer. Christmas is about light shining in dark places. When God looked down on earth 2000 years ago, He saw darkness, described by Paul in 2 Corinthians…

2 Cor. 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

God did something about our darkness…He shined Christ Jesus into our lives. In Philippians 2, Paul records one of the first Christmas carols about God shining light into our hearts. We don’t know the tune, but we do know the message…it goes like this…
Jesus… PHP 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, :7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! :9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul goes on to show us how this light doesn’t just shine into our hearts, but through our hearts to others…
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life…

Christmas is all about the light that shines in us and through us to light up the people-scape around us. Jesus is both God’s Christmas carol and also His Christmas light. When we let Jesus loose in our lives, we become His delivery system for that Christmas light.

First Flight

“The Hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” As I watched the 787 roll down the runway on the computer, and then jumped to the window to watch it and the chase planes head north, I was struck with how much of our hopes are focused on that delivery system like it was the provider rather than on the real Provider behind it all. Too easily we sink into dependence on our company, on the economy, on our offerings and fuzz up our focus on the Real. After all, we can see the company, we can see the airplane, we can see the people in the church. But, we can’t see the Provider.

We can count the money in our paycheck; we can see the ripple effect of a new plane in our stores and restaurants; we can count the money in the offering. But, we can’t count on any of them. Companies move. Customers cancel orders. People get disgusted, disappointed, and disillusioned. They leave churches. Offerings evaporate. Our real Provider is always there.

When we fix our hopes on an airplane, a pastor, or even a parent, we will ultimately be disappointed. That’s because God is the real Provider. He is behind every harvest, every paycheck, every provider with a little “p”. He is our source, our real Provider.

So, when we are fearing economic instability or corporate shakiness, when those on whom we’ve depended for years make disappearing noises, look above them all. They are not now and never have been our Provider. They may have been answers to prayer, but they were never the Answerer of prayer.

Speaking of the birds of the air, Jesus said,
your heavenly Father feeds

Speaking of the flowers of the field, Jesus said,
God clothes

Speaking of our needs, Jesus said,
your heavenly Father knows that you need

The hopes and fears of all the years are not met on a first flight of a new generation of airplanes. They are met in the Person of the Provider who was in that little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago.