The GT Weekend! ~ Sketched X Week 3

July 30, 2022 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

The GT Weekend!

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to
reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ.
Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer,
rest your soul in reflective journaling,
and spend time worshiping the Creator who
longs for intimacy with each of us!

Worship Through Journaling

1) Many of us know the hard edges of pain, injustice, and sorrow we felt would surely swallow us whole, or worse, bit by bit. Joseph’s story, the longest recorded single narrative in Genesis, is fraught with many opportunities to sink into the waves of sorrow, bitterness, and injustice. But God’s love was, and always will be, the greatest game changer of every story. In His lavish love, He strengthened Joseph’s faith in the midst of suffering and, rather than allow him to be swallowed by grief and despair, slowly taught Joseph to trust the Almighty Sovereign God. We each have this same choice. Every day. Every moment. Inside of each second of mundane or pain, God has provided the opportunity to lean into Him with authentic honesty or pull back. When we lean in, He increases our faith, strengthens our souls, sustains us, and gives His courage and peace. When we pull back, we soon find ourselves running blind through a minefield of bitterness, anger, depression, and despair. In the end, we lose everything. Take time to identity the opportunities the Lord is giving you recently. Where do you find your heart turning?

2) Joseph wasn’t really looking for redemption. He certainly wasn’t expecting to see the familiar faces of his brothers amidst the sea of faces that day as they came to Egypt, bowing to him, to purchase grain. Redemption and restoration within his family relationships may have surprised Joseph, but it didn’t surprise the Lord. He had seen this day from long before Joseph’s brothers had plotted to murder him. The Lord knew redemption was coming when Joseph unjustly sat in prison. More so, the Lord knew all the internal wrestling, heart ache, and grieving hot tears Joseph would cry in the years between being sold into slavery and the day he would embrace his brothers with glad tears. God never once abandoned Joseph; not one of His promises was broken. The Lord proved faithful at every single point, and eventually, Joseph saw with his physical eyes what the Lord had taught him to see with his spiritual eyes: redemption. The Lord loves us far too much to simply give us what we think we want in the physical realm without first teaching us what we really need in the spiritual realm: God Himself. Wherever you are in your own journey, high hope or struggling to lift your head, be encouraged that the God of redemption sees you, and He knows your redemption story inside and out. Trust Him!

3) Every injustice. Every broken place. Every wound that has relentlessly damaged bodies and relationships. Every single tear that has stained our cheeks. Healed, made whole, and redeemed one day. Joseph experienced only a small sliver of the full redemption the Lord had planned for His people during his life. Joseph’s family experienced partial redemption and the nation of Israel was blessed temporarily with safe harbor and sustaining food for a season. Eventually, though, Israel became enslaved for 400 years and suffered significantly in many ways even into modern times. Still, their homecoming is sure and certain, and so is ours. Whatever good we experience and whatever redemption we receive in this life is merely a hint of the good restoration still to come for those who have trusted Christ completely for their salvation. When we choose to adjust our lens to see our struggles with the perspective of Home on the horizon, even hardship becomes more bearable. Practice turning over your perspective to the Lord this weekend. Ask Him to fix your gaze on the eternity to come! To help you anchor in this truth, marinate your soul in truths of Scripture like Revelation 21 and 22 and Psalm 27.

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from John 13:7 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

Prayer Journal
Lord Jesus, like Peter at the Last Supper, like Joseph in prison, like Israel wandering the desert, like Abraham leaving his homeland to follow Your lead, Your words speak truth to our reality, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” (John 13:7) When You sat with Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3), when You commissioned Joshua to “be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9), when You came to Isaiah in a vision (Isaiah 6), they had no way of knowing what You were doing in their timeline or how it would echo through the ages. But You did; You knew all along. You never cease to be faithful, steadfast, and true.

Teach us to trust You with our stories. Teach us to honestly bring You every piece of our painful suffering, surrendering it fully to You, and waiting with great, expectant Hope for Your sure and certain coming redemption. What You are doing now in our lives, we cannot comprehend the wide spectrum You have planned, but teach us to live by faith and not by sight. May our hearts choose praise, worship, and adoration now, whatever our circumstances look like. Here is my life, Lord God, make Your redemption known in its storyline!

Worship Through Community

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Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Sketched X Day 9 Dreams & Designs: Digging deeper

July 21, 2022 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Dreams & Designs!

The Questions

1) Why is the timing in these verses recorded and how is it emphasized in the narrative? (verses 1-14)

2) What is the reader to learn about God and His revelations from this passage? (verses 15-27)

3) Why would the author record Joseph’s statement regarding the Lord’s determination of His plans? What does this reveal about Joseph’s faith? (verse 32)

Genesis 41:1-32

At the end of two years Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile, 2 when seven healthy-looking, well-fed cows came up from the Nile and began to graze among the reeds. 3 After them, seven other cows, sickly and thin, came up from the Nile and stood beside those cows along the bank of the Nile. 4 The sickly, thin cows ate the healthy, well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. 5 He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and good, came up on one stalk. 6 After them, seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up. 7 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, full ones. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it was only a dream.
8 When morning came, he was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
|9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults. 10 Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guards. 11 He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning. 12 Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation. 13 It turned out just the way he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.”
14 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharaoh.
15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.
16 “I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
17 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when seven well-fed, healthy-looking cows came up from the Nile and grazed among the reeds. 19 After them, seven other cows—weak, very sickly, and thin—came up. I’ve never seen such sickly ones as these in all the land of Egypt. 20 Then the thin, sickly cows ate the first seven well-fed cows. 21 When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up. 22 In my dream I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stalk. 23 After them, seven heads of grain—withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind—sprouted up. 24 The thin heads of grain swallowed the seven good ones. I told this to the magicians, but no one can tell me what it means.”

25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years. The dreams mean the same thing. 27 The seven thin, sickly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind are seven years of famine.

28 “It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt. 30 After them, seven years of famine will take place, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. The famine will devastate the land. 31 The abundance in the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows it, for the famine will be very severe. 32 Since the dream was given twice to Pharaoh, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and he will carry it out soon.

Original Intent

1) Why is the timing in these verses recorded and how is it emphasized in the narrative? (verses 1-14)
Immediately before the introductory sentence of chapter 41, “At the end of two years […]”, we read the closing sentence of chapter 40 which provides significant context, “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” While imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Joseph interpreted the dreams of two fellow prisoners. Joseph pleaded with the Cupbearer to remember Joseph and his unjust treatment when he was returned to his previous royal position, but the Cupbearer forgot him, and so Joseph stayed in prison for two more years. The author (Moses) also included the small words “the end” to emphasize completion of a term. The Lord God is never in a rush. Though Joseph had surely pleaded with God for freedom from injustice many times in the 2+years he’d been imprisoned, the Lord would answer Joseph’s prayer at just the right time. The series of events, though certainly chaotic and without reason to Joseph, was carefully arranged and allowed by the Lord. The famine was coming, the good years were coming, and the Lord would use Joseph to position him at just the right time in order to save not only his family, but also allow for the flourishing of a new, budding nation of Israel. The Lord loved Joseph, and Israel, too much to allow Joseph’s shortsighted pleadings to short-circuit Joseph’s coming redemption and Israel’s growth. More markers of time passage are included in this passage to emphasize the preciseness of the Lord’s arrangement. “When morning came” (verse 8) speaking of Pharaoh’s passage of time and “today” (verse 9) speaking of the Cupbearer’s negligent forgetfulness and “then” (verse 14) speaking of Pharaoh’s conclusion to send for Joseph all underscore the reality that nothing in this narrative was happenstance. God used every single detail to bring about the next steps in His plan of redemption.

2) What is the reader to learn about God and His revelations from this passage? (verses 15-27)
God is not aloof, far-off, and neither has He posted a “Do Not Disturb” sign on His door. He wants to be known; He wants humanity to seek Him, follow His ways, and learn to trust Him. Though He, as sovereign Lord of the Universe, is absolutely not required to give dreams to people, He does, precisely because He wants to be known. The Lord is also a God of clarity, not mystique, deception, or confusion. God provided dreams to Pharaoh, a man who did not worship the Lord God in any fashion, in order to make Himself known to Pharaoh, but also to demonstrate to Pharaoh His character of orderliness and understanding. Pharaoh didn’t understand the meanings, but that didn’t negate that clear meanings were both intended and would be provided by the Lord. The Lord raised up the “dream expert” in His own time, and in His own way, after He had allowed Joseph time to wrestle with his faith for many years and land in a place of trust in the Almighty. Through the man of God’s own choosing, what had appeared confusing at first, was plainly revealed. In the same way, Jesus, to whom Joseph points us, would one day make very clear what seemed hidden to the Jews. He would shine clarifying light on the Old Testament and show how Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled every promising hope hidden in its pages. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8) While the Lord provided a clear interpretation to the dreams, we mustn’t miss there was only one correct interpretation, and everyone knew it, even the pagans. The magicians and wise men in all of Egypt, on hearing the dreams, knew they couldn’t correctly interpret it, for the Lord was holding its meaning. (verse 8) Only the man the Lord had chosen to interpret would have the correct interpretation.

3) Why would the author record Joseph’s statement regarding the Lord’s determination of His plans? What does this reveal about Joseph’s faith? (verse 32)
Joseph was given dreams and their interpretation from the Lord since he was a youth, but now as he stood before Pharaoh, his faith had grown and deepened in ways he couldn’t have fathomed all those years ago when he’d received his first dream. Joseph’s first dreams promised a coming time when his own brothers would bow down to him, but the timing of this dream’s realization, and the picture of what its actualization looked like in real life were likely radically different from Joseph’s first thoughts. Would he be king? Would he move from his father’s house into the lap of luxury? Would his dream make him powerful enough to silence his brothers once and for all? Maybe the “dream expert” spent many hours wondering how his dream would play out and when. In his thoughts, how easily could he cast aside that it was Yahweh, the Lord of All, who had given the dreams and would bring them about in His time? Did Joseph fall for the deception that these dreams were his destiny and it was up to him to make it happen? Perhaps pride puffed him up for years before the Lord began to bring him low, and lovingly teach Joseph how the Lord’s dreams weren’t about Joseph, but about the Lord God. The provision would be the Lord’s, just as the dreams were. The interpretation belonged to the Lord, just as Joseph did. The timing was the Lord’s, not Joseph’s to control. The fulfillment of the dreams rested solely on the Lord. Joseph emphasized how determined the Lord was to bring about the fulfillment of Pharaoh’s dreams because it was a lesson he had well-learned in his time of training with the Lord.

Everyday Application

1) Why is the timing in these verses recorded and how is it emphasized in the narrative? (verses 1-14)
It’s interesting to study what people choose to put down on paper, to record, to keep, and be re-read at a later time. It reveals quite a bit about what was important to them and who they are as a person. Old journals are particularly interesting, especially after a person has passed away. We wonder, who were they really between themselves and the page? How much more curious ought we be when approaching Scripture?! This is God’s own Words revealed to us about His heart and purpose for His people. More so, it’s living and active and effective as it teaches us applicable truth for our everyday moments in the middle of our own century! (Hebrews 4:12) Whether you’re an avid journal-keeper or not, what might you choose to record about your life in this season? What are your views of the Lord and His timing? Do you believe you are commander of your own destiny or does the Lord have any rule in your life? How do the words recorded in Joseph’s narrative land inside you? Do they compel you to worship the Lord for His kind goodness and constant presence or do you sense yourself pressing against Him in your soul? Regardless of where you are in your faith journey, be comforted by the truth that even the fact that you’re reading this today, at this moment, isn’t random. The Lord has a purpose for you just as He did for Joseph. As we learn to trust Him more and more, we discover not only our purpose, but also the grand love of the Lord as He thoughtfully pursues us with goodness and mercy. (Psalm 23:6)

2) What is the reader to learn about God and His revelations from this passage? (verses 15-27)
In today’s culture of dreams and visions and “prophetic words”, it can be easy to miss the main reason the Lord has given revelation of Himself through dreams and visions. If we move so fast into interpretation, seek what it could mean, or draw out the course of our lives, or rush to determine a “promise” from a dream, we have missed the Lord’s emphasis. He wants us to know Him for who He is as the Lord of All; everything else flows from this. When it comes to interpreting dreams or Scripture itself, we must remember what the pagans knew so well. The Lord has one correct interpretation to the original intent. We would be wise to consider the warning the Lord gave to the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, “The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has my word should speak my word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Is not my word like fire”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and like a hammer that pulverizes rock? Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets”—the Lord’s declaration—“who steal my words from each other. I am against the prophets”—the Lord’s declaration—“who use their own tongues to make a declaration. I am against those who prophesy false dreams”—the Lord’s declaration—“telling them and leading my people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people”—this is the Lord’s declaration.” (Jeremiah 23:28-32) Let’s exercise a holy awe and caution when reaching for interpreting dreams; let’s hold fast to the Word of the Lord as our foundation!

3) Why would the author record Joseph’s statement regarding the Lord’s determination of His plans? What does this reveal about Joseph’s faith? (verse 32)
The Lord never wastes suffering for those who have entrusted themselves wholly to Him. (1 Peter 5:10-11) He uses it to shape us into the image of Jesus, so we can more beautifully reflect Him to the world around us. (Romans 8:29) We cannot reflect a God of love if we have not learned to trust Him. Neither can we reflect His kind, humble goodness if we are trapped inside our own pride. Joseph began his faith journey with the Lord full of youthful arrogance and pride. Instead of causing us to look down on him, we ought to be so richly comforted! The Lord called Joseph and gave him the gift of dreams and interpretation. Over time and through hard suffering, the Lord would finish His work and place Joseph in just the right place to use His gift at just the right time that the Lord had pre-ordained. (James 1:2-4) The same is true for each of us. (Philippians 1:6) When we surrender ourselves to Jesus, His Spirit gives us gifts we are to use for the benefit of believers and for the strengthening of the Church. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7) Our pride will puff us up when we look at our gift, but when we lean into the lessons the Lord teaches us about Himself in our suffering, we learn what it looks like to love like Jesus! (1 Corinthians 8:1)

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

Digging Deeper Community

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Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

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The GT Weekend! ~ Sketched X Week 1

July 16, 2022 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

The GT Weekend!

Worship Through Journaling

1) Digging Deeper author, Patty Scott, held up snapshots of Joseph’s life and challenged us to consider how nearsighted we are when we view snippets of our own lives. It’s easy to longingly ache for more, for wholeness, for redemption, for better than our current hardship. We hunger for a season when the pressing isn’t so intense, and like our New Testament brother in Jesus, Stephen, we can wonder how our seemingly senseless difficulty could result in good. When we hold up Joseph’s and Stephen’s stories to Jesus and the Eternal Hope He offers, we are encouraged to take a broad scope lens approach to our own suffering. Learning to trust in the Hope of Jesus takes time as God’s Spirit teaches us through hardship to fix our eyes of Him instead of our circumstances. What is your perspective on the details of a current hardship? If you’re in a sweet place, where does your anchor lie for when the details shift from easy to hard? Take some time to read and reflect on the words from the Lord found in 2 Corinthians 4:14-18 over the weekend and let them take root in your heart!

2) As Joseph’s story began in the early years his fledgling faith was barely beginning, but he leaned into what he knew to be true despite the chaos and challenge of his life. The Lord was revealing Himself through the heritage of Joseph’s past and through dreams. His home life was painful and unstable in many ways, but he still believed the Lord enough to trust the dreams he’d been given. Through the pages of Scripture, we see the Lord revealing Himself to His people in small portions that increase over time as they deepen in their faith. This is true for us as well! Consider where you are in your faith journey. What do you hold to be true about God? Where did you learn it? Who influenced you in these beliefs? What do you hunger to know more about Him? Are you allowing your circumstances to dictate what you believe or the truth of Scripture? Take just 2 minutes this weekend and write down what you believe about God. Ponder these reflections and give them over to the Lord, letting Him lead you into deeper understanding of Him as you seek His face!

3) Injustice piled on top of injustice for Joseph. I’ve felt the same in my own life. My gut response is to seriously question the goodness of God and whether He really sees me and knows me. It’s so easy to doubt Him and, in place of faith, wonder if He will really do anything about unjust treatment. When resolution and redemption don’t happen on my timetable, I begin to doubt whether Scripture is true when it says the Lord is a God of justice. (Isaiah 30:18) Lord, pour spiritual cement on my heart when these temptations to doubt come at me; anchor me in truth and don’t let me leave! When are you most tempted to doubt the Lord and His goodness? Consider your default setting of belief about the Lord when you experience easy seasons and then again in hard ones. Do your beliefs align with what the Lord says about Himself in Scripture? Are you willing to embrace what God’s Word says or will you hold fast to your perspective? Think about the why behind your answers and bring this to the Lord!

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Prayer Journal
Lord Jesus, I can look backwards in my life and see how faithful You have proven to be to me and to every promise in Your word. When doubt creeps in, I can look straight to Scripture and see how You prove Your faithfulness through every story. Holding onto truth is much harder than holding onto lies; Lord Jesus, increase my appetite for truth and lead me away from temptation to believe deceptions.

I know You will follow through on Your word to redeem my suffering for good, to bring healing from my brokenness, and to restore the years the locusts have eaten. (Joel 2:25-26) Keep leading me to surrender my plans and expectations to You in the middle of suffering. Teach me to be strong and courageous and wait for You to move perfectly in Your time to accomplish Your good work! (Psalm 27:14)

Worship Through Community

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Worship Through Prayer

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Sketched X Day 5 Injustice Upon Injustice

July 15, 2022 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Isaiah 30:15-22
Genesis 37:12-36
Genesis 39:1-20
Acts 8:26-40

Sketched X, Day 5

Joseph
My body racked with pain and it shook violently. Of their own volition, sobs overtook my frame. My legs could not sustain my weight and I crumbled beneath my grief. I gasped for air, my ribs pressed in, and I tasted the metallic hint of blood where my own teeth had crushed my tongue in anguish. The pain was too much. My fists clenched and opened rhythmically as I furiously pounded the hardpacked earth beneath me.

No, I wasn’t being tortured by enemy forces. No whip lashed my back. My head was not bowed by blows to my brow. The agony inside threatened to swallow me whole.

Injustice upon injustice was mine.
“Yahweh!” “Where! “Are!” “You!”
Each word punched the air as I screamed, the stone walls deafly pressing my agony back upon my ears.
Other prisoners banged on their bars to stop my clamor, but I didn’t care. What did it matter? My only hope of escape had flown away, the stones seemed tighter every day, and the memories of old dreams mocked me every time I closed my eyes.

My brothers’ sheaves bowing down to mine, then theirs turned to laugh at me with disdain.
My beautiful coat paraded as a king’s and then covered in goat’s blood.
The stars encircled me and then my embers exploded into oblivion.

Why would you mock and humble me, Yahweh?!
I obeyed you!
I listened to Your voice and believed You when You gave me dreams.
I was faithful to You and didn’t give in to temptation with Potiphar’s wife!
I sought You, not myself, for the answers to other prisoners’ dreams.

AND WHAT HAS MY OBEDIENCE GOTTEN ME?!
Injustice Upon Injustice

Philip
“I don’t understand,” the Ethiopian continued as he turned his eyes from the scroll to meet mine. “Who was despised? Why should we bother if he was rejected?”

Instantly, gruesome images and horrific sounds assaulted my mind’s eye as Isaiah’s centuries-old prophesies had played out right before me days before. The Spirit of Christ living within me had brought me to this Gentile Ethiopian’s chariot because he needed to know the truth. He needed to meet the risen Christ that Isaiah had foretold would come to suffer.

As the scenes in my mind flashed, God’s Spirit inside loosed my tongue and I explained Isaiah’s words.

“His body was wracked with pain as the Roman whip bit into his flesh, tearing skin away and exposing the bones of His spine and ribs. His wrists bled profusely where He was tied to the whipping post. The cries of a man near death hung in the air that morning, haunting all of us. The whip was not enough, of course”, I continued, not even seeing the Ethiopian beside me, for I could only see the scarcely recognizable body of Jesus in my mind.

“Thorns pierced His brow,” I went on, knowing I could do nothing to stop my voice from shaking. “Blood. So much blood, it was everywhere. But even the nails piercing innocent flesh and the wretched pain they brought, were nothing compared to the agony inside Him as He was separated from the Father as He bore our sin.”

I caught my breath and fixed my eyes on the Ethiopian. He must understand. “He was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5)

I made no attempt to stop the flood of tears now streaming down my face as I repeated Jesus’ anguished words from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?!” (Matthew 27:46)

The man’s eyes still clouded with confusion, so I begged the Spirit to make it clear to him as I said, “Isaiah’s prophesied Messiah is Jesus. He took our place, took our punishment for our sin and suffered injustice upon injustice, that we might be freely restored to God forever.”

Joseph
Slowly my heavy weeping slowed, my body spent. Dirt that had mixed with my tears and saliva caked my face. Broken and shaking, I lay silent, wondering if the Lord would hear my cries.

Unsuspectingly, an early memory of my father wafted over me like a welcome embrace. I saw my young, boyish self sitting at his feet and heard his strong voice warming me as he told me again how the Lord had come to him in one of his dreams. My eyes were alight with wonder that Yahweh would speak to Father and unwittingly my breath caught in my chest as I remembered one particular phrase, “I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.” (Genesis 31:12) The God of Dreams SEES injustice. Surely, Yahweh longs to reverse the curse of injustice and usher in His favor just as He did with my Father!

I uncurled my frame and sat upright, wiping my face and breathing deeply, calmly, as if with new life. Yahweh sees. As I held onto this truth, repeating it over and over, memories came flooding back of how the God who sees injustice and gives Himself for the righteous had acted for me and generations before me.

Yahweh was indeed a faithful God and deep inside, I knew my story was not over here surrounded by stone, dirt, and darkness. He would finish the plans He had for me; I would wait for Him.

I bowed my head as fresh tears of gratitude washed my face. My once-clenched fists now lifted upward with palms raised in worship to the God of all Faithfulness who would take my injustices and finish the work to make me whole!

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A Note About Sketched
In this series, we are stepping into the shoes of various characters throughout history. Some are biblical, some are well-known in modern day times, and some are people our writers know personally. We do our best to research the culture and times surrounding these individuals to give an accurate representation of their first-person perspectives on life and the world, but we can’t be 100% accurate. “Sketched” is our best interpretation of how these characters view(ed) God, themselves, and the world around them. Our hope is that by stepping into their everyday, we will see our own lives a little differently!
Enjoy!
And keep watching for Sketched Themes to pop up throughout the year!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

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Here’s a link to all past studies in Sketched X