Shalom to the Tribes of Israel scattered among the nations! Look up, your redemption draws near!
This week’s Torah portion brings us to the end of another book of the Torah.
Hazak, hazak v’nit’chazek!
Be strong! Be strong! and let us be strengthened!
Every Torah cycle, as I read the life of Joseph I ponder my own life with its abusive beginnings and the paths I walked down as a result of the faulty foundation. There are many analogies one can draw from…my favorite is that of building a foundation for a house/home/family.
If the foundation has cracks in it, if the contractor used inferior material to cut the costs, then the foundation is weakened, the structure is not sound enough to last years, centuries of weather, wear and tear.
Such is the human family. From the beginning, immediately after our original parents partook of the fruit from the tree of both good and evil, well, you know the rest of the story!
I want to share with you in the audio recording a heart cry from a dear friend of mine. She gave me permission to share it, but I want to ask you to hear the cry of the heart representing those hearts around the world that cry out, voices in the wilderness, in bondage to this world’s Babylon system…crying for freedom and deliverance.
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
I love a good story. There is nothing more powerful to me than a person’s testimony of what the Living God did personally for them.
I remember sharing my testimony at a massive church in Boston Massachusetts. I had been invited to speak by a popular female pastor and I was honored to be asked to come speak, sharing my published work.
As I stood facing the vast number of chairs, most of which was still empty, I began telling of my journey out of the sordid lifestyle of an active addict, a falling-down drug, filled with self-hatred, shame, and pain. I shared the miracle of how He delivered me out of the snake pits of hell…
Two women attending, stood up, one after the other, tears streaming down their faces. They had walked in off the street, feeling compelled to come into the sanctuary. They both shared that they knew, after hearing my story that it was God that led them. That if God did that for me, then maybe, just maybe He would do that for them too…you see, these precious souls were prostitutes, drug-addicted, hopeless, and needing a Savior.
You have a testimony someone needs to hear.
