He’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Jesus

Check out my latest Genesis blog from Genesis 44…This post is based on our Genesis series. Download the podcast at: Central Christian Church Main Service, or follow us on twitter: @ccclancaster

Central Christian Church

Genesis 44

The climax of the story…Judah is beginning to look a lot like Jesus. He’s willing to sacrifice himself for the good of another. It’s the greatest theme in literature…Katniss and Prim in The Hunger Games, Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, Carton in A Tale of Two Cities just to name a few. In fact Jesus said it this way, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friend.” It’s a picture of the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us, taking our place, dying in our stead, so that we might live.

Judah’s willingness to step in and offer himself, and the brothers insistence on returning with Benjamin are evidences of a spiritual transformation that has already begun to take place in their lives. At what point did they become believers…when did they pass from death to…

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Back to Egypt

Check out my latest Genesis post from Genesis 43…This post is based on our Genesis series. Download the podcast at: Central Christian Church Main Service, or follow us on twitter: @ccclancaster

Central Christian Church

Genesis 43

The healing process has begun for this fractured family. Jacob is praying, and maybe hoping again for the first time in twenty years. The brothers are acknowledging their sin. Joseph has a front row seat. Good news because the plan of redemption rests with this motley crew. Through them all the families of the earth will be blessed, because from their descendants and more particularly through the line of Judah the Head-crushing Seed of the woman will come, a guy we know as Jesus. God could have chose any other way…He could have entrusted the mission to angels, He could have caused the rocks to cry out…yet He allows the plan to rest on this family. There is no plan B. Very risky proposition considering their track record. Sound familiar? His plan of redemption now continues with us, the church. A ragtag, motley crew…and considering our track record……

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A Close Encounter

Check out my latest Genesis post from Genesis 42…This post is based on our Genesis series. Download the podcast at: Central Christian Church Main Service, or follow us on twitter: @ccclancaster

Central Christian Church

Genesis 42

Twenty years of Joseph’s life had been spent in a series of seemingly unfortunate events. A roller-coaster of emotions and experiences…beloved son, despised and hated brother, prisoner, slave, prisoner again, dream interpreter, husband, father, a big deal in Egypt. Success and seeming failure. Unfair treatment. Misunderstood. Hopeful. God’s providence…now we see that the path that Joseph was on was leading him to the realization of his dreams. In every circumstance…every hardship, every sorrow, every joy, every pain, every moment…God meant it for good.

God is sovereign over the affairs of men, but man is still responsible for his actions. It’s a divine mystery…God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Joseph’s brothers are responsible for their actions and must face the consequences of what they have done. But God uses their actions to bring about His purposes. In this story we see God’s severe mercy. He uses a famine to force…

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