The Perfect Person

 When we are young we look at people and desire to be like someone we admire. As we grow older we see that they are not perfect, but flawed. If we have suffered some hurt, we do not hold onto it; we forgive the person. We should want the best for them or their memory. All this requires that God be in our heart. God loves us and wants us to be like his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one we desire to be like. He is the perfect person. He also forgives our sins as we are to forgive others. We cannot continue and grow in grace and favor without God.

The story of Joseph shows us how to forgive.

Gen 50:15  When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 

Gen 50:16  So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 

Gen 50:17  ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 

Gen 50:18  His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 

Gen 50:19  But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 

Gen 50:20  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 

Gen 50:21  So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. 

Ice

 The water on the pool cover was still frozen this afternoon, trapping some leaves and making designs for us to see. 

 Help me out with these images. This one looks like a spider crab. They have small bodies and very long legs. Being a scavenger the Jewish laws call them unclean.

Deu 14:9  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: 

Deu 14:10  And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you. 

 I see an "A" for Artist. The LORD is the master Artist, creator and pattern maker.

Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. 

 I see a cross and the figure of a man.

Luke 24:6  He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 

Luke 24:7  Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 

Luke 24:8  And they remembered his words, 

Luke 24:9  And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 

Luke 24:10  It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. 

 Pyramids appear above the storehouse of leaves.

Gen 41:34  Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. 

Gen 41:35  And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. 

Gen 41:36  And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine. 

Gen 41:41  And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. 

Gen 41:42  And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; 

Gen 41:43  And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. 

I see the head of a great fish.

Jonah 1:17  Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 

Luke 11:29  And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. 

Luke 11:30  For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation. 

Joseph of Arimathaea

Mar 15:43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 

Mar 15:44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
Mar 15:45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
Mar 15:46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
Mar 15:47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.

Joseph was described as honourable

honorable: (from Strong's concordance)

1) of elegant figure

a) shapely, graceful, comely, bearing one's self becomingly in speech or behaviour

2) of good standing

a) honourable, influential, wealthy, respectable

Joseph was an honourable counsellor

counsellor: a Senator or member of the ruling counsel of the Jews

Joseph was a man of wealth and influence; Pilate respected him enough to allow him to take the body of Jesus to be buried in Joseph's own tomb. This was the fulfillment of a prophecy.

Isa 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Matthew described Joseph as a rich man and a disciple of Jesus.

Mat 27:57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
Mat 27:58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
Mat 27:59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
Mat 27:60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

John tells us that another secret believer joined him in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. We know of this other man as Nicodemus who came to speak to Jesus in John 3, and was told that ye must be born again of God. Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

Joh 19:39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Joh 19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

Two secret witnesses in high places. Both did not actively witness that they were believers, but they did have some influence in the governing body of the Jews. We need people of influence in our government that are believers of Jesus Christ. They need to speak out for righteousness and so do we. There is a song about "secret service Christians", well we are not to keep Jesus a secret but to tell all that he is the Son of God, who came to save us, to make us free from the bondage of sin and to deliver us as free people into the kingdom of God.

15:40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

Mary the mother of Joses was the sister of Mary the birth mother of Jesus.

Joh 19:25  Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 

Salome was the mother of Zebedee's sons, James and John. It takes some figuring out to get these names straight.

Joh 19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
Joh 19:42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

The garden tomb was nearby. There they lay him because it was the Passover preparation day. The blind religious people were to observe the Passover where the blood of a lamb was shed to spare them from the death angel. As they celebrated this symbolic event, they were spiritual dead, unaware that they had just killed their Messiah, the Lamb of God, the one that John the Baptist pointed to.

Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

They had killed the Passover Lamb, the Son of God, who would be raised from the grave on the third day.