Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals for today are provided by Mei Lan Thallman. Mei Lan Thallman is originally from Taiwan and a graduate of Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.A.) in Kentucky. She is the wife of Pastor Kirt, who serves at Grace Covenant Church (Philadelphia). They have two children, Nate (13) and Naomi (11).
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Genesis 37:2-11
These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. 5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Several years ago, while we were serving in South Carolina, we took the kids on a family vacation to Disney World in Florida. We thought we were making Nathan and Naomi’s childhood dreams become a reality—they would remember Disney as the magical place. But we were shocked to hear Naomi make the declaration upon arriving home, “It’s so good to be home; I love my home better than Disney.” In our sincere effort to give them a magical experience, we had pushed ourselves over the limit by doing too much with too little time.
After Joseph received two prophetic dreams from God during his teen years, life took on a series of dramatic downturn for 13 long years. And when things couldn’t seem to get any worse, they dipped deeper into the bottomless spiral: Young Joseph first survived an attempted murder; then he was sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers; next, he was sexually harassed and falsely accused by his master’s seductive and manipulative wife, which led him into imprisonment. Finally, he saw a flicker of hope of overturning his case of injustice through a returned favor for helping the cupbearer; instead, after waiting for two years, he was forced to face the reality that the grateful cupbearer had completely forgotten about him.
Yet, through it all, Joseph refused to compromise his hope and faith in God and his integrity to become a bitter victim of life’s cruel punches. Even when the people in his life turned their backs against him, Yahweh was with him and caused him to prosper through the worst of circumstances (Gen 39:2, 21).
His difficult, outward circumstances only solidified his inward identity, over time, as a beloved child of God. That identity was so powerful and real that wherever he went, unbelievers could not help but notice and be drawn to Joseph because of God’s strong and undeniable presence in his life.
If you are currently facing life’s overwhelming, contradicting circumstances and you are wondering, This is not at all what I expected from life, take heart and be of courage, because God’s eyes are on you and His presence is with you. Just as He was with Joseph, He is now with you.
He will not only see you through this challenging time, but He will use it to prepare you for His glorious plan. God used Joseph’s adversities to prove His faithfulness and redemptive plan, and used him to be a channel of blessing that extended into the whole world.
Prayer: Lord, we thank You that Christ in us is the hope of glory. This indwelling hope is greater and stronger than he that is in the world. Though in this world all of us will face life’s difficulties, thank You that we are never alone; and Your presence in our lives empowers us to become “overcomers” instead of “victims”!
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 26-27
What’s the point of the virgin birth? Some say that since the original sin is transmitted through the father, if Jesus had been conceived in a natural manner, He could’ve been neither perfect nor sinless. Paul probably would have disagreed since he wrote, “Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner” (1 Tim. 2:14). While we can debate this point to no end, there is another compelling reason why the virgin birth was absolutely necessary.
Perhaps no one ever feared death quite like Thomas Donaldson, then 46, who was afflicted with brain cancer in 1990. Hoping that someday science would provide a cure for cancer, he sought for cryogenic (science of the effects of low temperature) specialists to freeze him, and then sever his frozen head to store it for the future. At $35,000, freezing a head was cheaper than the cost of freezing an entire body for $100,000. Wishing also for the development of brain transplantation, the plan called for his head to be implanted to another body. “I am dying,” Donaldson said, adding, “I might later be revived and continue to live.” Ironically, he beat the disease until finally succumbing to it in 2006.
I disagree with most of what Richard Dawkins wrote in The God Delusion but not the following story. He cites a clergy who told his dying colleague, “Congratulations! I wish I was coming with you.” Noting that this clergy seemed like a sincere believer, the famed atheist says, “It is precisely because it’s so rare that his story catches our attention. Could it be that [religious people] don’t believe all that stuff they pretend to believe?” To some extent, this is true. One reason is that believers are more enamored by the men of this world who are getting all their “rewards” now, than the rewards of being with God.
Which animal you see in the picture depends on where your focus is: a gaze to the left will show a duck, to the right, a rabbit; but as whole, this image contains both a duck and a rabbit. I first saw this image in a book extolling postmodernism that, to ensure that Eurocentric thoughts no longer dominate the rest, has relativized all truth claims. This is why religious pluralism— belief that all religions lead to the same God—emerges as a child of postmodernism.
Now, in church history, one of the fiercest theological battles has been fought between the Calvinists and the Arminians. Regarding God’s election (that God predestines some to be saved), whereas the Calvinists posit that its basis is His deliberative plan (Eph. 1:11) that has nothing to do men’s merit, the Arminians say that the basis is God’s foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2). That is, God, “having foreseen men’s potential faith” chose “those who would turn to Him when they heard the gospel” (Hammond). But they do agree on one thing: this is a matter of either/or, and that both positions cannot be right at the same time. But Peter’s sermon suggests otherwise. Talking about those who played a critical part in crucifying Jesus, he says that it was done based on God’s “predetermined plan” as well as His “foreknowledge” of men’s future action.
When my kids were little, I would remind them how it was going to ruin their vision whenever they would read in a moving vehicle. It worked for awhile—until my oldest son showed me a research that disapproved it. Similarly, some things told from the pulpit may just be urban theological legends. Before proceeding, remember this: in order for the teachings in Acts to be deemed as valid for today, they need to be confirmed by the Epistles that delineate doctrines and practices normative for the church.
The word “formalism” conjures up images of liturgical church (e.g., Lutheran, Episcopalian); but it can also be found in emotion-filled Pentecostal churches. Once, as my wife and I were returning home from a Charismatic meeting where I spoke, she told me that someone had asked her whether she was a Christian. During the prayer time when everyone prayed out really loud, the sight of my wife praying quietly was a dead giveaway to this person that she wasn’t saved: that’s formalism, which is a strict adherence to some behavior arbitrarily selected as most pleasing to God and then judging those who fall short.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals for January 23-4 are provided by Christine Li. Christine graduated from University of Pennsylvania and currently lives and works in New York City. She attends Remnant Church in Manhattan.
I am sure all of us have been delivered from trouble unexpectedly before. Maybe you forget your calculator for an exam but someone shows up with an extra one. Or maybe you are running late to the train station and a friend happens to drive by and gets you there speedily. Just as glad as you are that someone saved, it’s likely that the other person is even happier to have been in the right place at the right time.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals for January 23-4 are provided by Christine Li. Christine graduated from University of Pennsylvania and currently lives and works in New York City. She attends Remnant Church in Manhattan.
During summer vacations, my gang of cousins and I would compete in earning money. We received pennies from our aunts for different chores— folding laundry, sweeping the floors, etc. When any one of us thought he or she had collected a sufficient amount, we would announce that we could treat the entire family to a pizza feast. One of my aunts would then take that cousin to the store: the cousin would pay with that hard-earned money, and our aunt would ‘fill in a little bit’ on the spot.
Whenever the late evangelist Chun Suk Lee, a physically imposing man, spoke, people listened; I certainly did in 1982 when he said to me, “God gave you the gift of language.” I had no clue as to what he meant.
I wonder how Jerry Rankin, then-President of the International Mission Board, felt as the vote was being counted. In 2005, the board members of this Southern Baptist Convention organization voted on whether to accept anyone who speaks in tongues as its missionary candidates. The board overwhelmingly decided against it. Rankin, who had been speaking in tongues for 30 years, couldn’t have felt too comfortable.