katie rose writes

Continuing on from the last blog, Joseph has been sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard. The word says that "the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man...His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight." Joseph is put in charge of everything that his master owns, and therefore, the blessing of Lord was on everything that he had. As we all know, as soon as God has us centered on Him, that is when we are most vulnerable to Satan's attacks. And it's the same thing with Joseph. Satan comes in form of a woman; specifically, in the form of Potiphar's wife. She saw how handsome Joseph was, and several times she tries to entice him, to seduce him. Day after day she does this. Satan is very persistent. But everyday, Joseph ignores her. He does not listen to her. But one day she physically grabs him, by his garment. And he flees, leaving ...

So, maybe I just like characters of the Bible with J-names. Jacob. Joseph. Jonah. Josiah. But I do. And for the past few days, and for the next few days as I am finishing up Genesis, the main character of this family story is Joseph. Therefore, I'm gonna blog about him for a few days. I'm gonna tell his story in bits and pieces, even though I'll be moving on to Exodus by the end of the week. I'm gonna start with him & his brothers, then cover the first part of Egypt. Then go into the second part of his story in Egypt. Then a concluding piece. Each time pulling out truths that God has shown me in His story. Maybe it's because I've never really read the story in one continuum like I have been. Usually when you think of Joseph, you only get half the picture, the coat of many colors. Really this is not the significant part of the story...at all. Except to show that Jacob, father of 12, had a favorite, and it was Joseph, his 17 year old. Which put hi...

So, this past weekend the BSU leadership team, along with the new Freshman leadership team, embarked on an adventure to Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama. It was a great weekend. I (and a friend) only stayed from Friday night-Saturday afternoon, as both of us wanted to get back and rest before church on Sunday. So, Friday on the way up, with her car, Gerald, PACKED full of food and drinks and the like, plus us in the front, we chatted quite a lot just about life and what God had been teaching us. It's amazing how we pretty much have gotten into a routine of eating lunch together once a week, and yet we can still talk about so much. I'm so blessed that God has brought her into my life. Anyway, after some chatting and singing together, we listened to John Piper's message from Passion 2011 (ATL), "Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy." She had been there firsthand, but I'm not set to go until April. Plus I was too busy reading through Narnia to list...

The title of this post is half from a book by Max Lucado, and half from a new initiative at Pinelake spanning the next two years. I won't spend too much time on the latter half, you can check it out here (the video on the homepage makes me cry every time I see it, be warned!). But the former half, the book by Max Lucado is so so good. This is my first Lucado book, and it is just so real and personal. And each chapter ends with a prayer. Good stuff. Right now I am really challenged, overwhelmed, and excited. All these emotions are very tiring, so I'll probably be going to bed very soon. But I just wanted to share what God has laid on my heart about "outlive your life." First of all, if you know the radical experiment God has me doing, you know I'm reading through the Bible in a year. And today, as I've been pondering "outlive your life," He just spoke to me that every single character in God's Word has outlived their life. Years after t...

This morning at church, I was rather confronted by a startling fact about myself. I'm a planner. I write to-do lists. I'm not religious about it, but when the need arises for a to-do list, I make one. Simple as that. So, the past couple of posts I've been sharing with you what some of those things on the 2011 to-do list are, things God has laid on my hearts to do. But this morning, we looked at Paul's letter to the Philippians. In the 3rd chapter, Paul confronts this sect/cult called the "Judaizers." They were telling the people to, yes, believe in Christ and be saved. But on top of that, you must have good works (in accordance with the law of the old testament) to somehow "gain" salvation. This is still a prevalent belief. But Paul went on, telling these people that, according to the law, Paul was blameless. And yet all of those good works were nothing, they are a rubbish pile (literally, dung) in comparison with Christ, with knowing Chris...