{"id":7062,"date":"2021-04-19T18:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T08:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7062"},"modified":"2021-04-19T18:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T08:51:32","slug":"the-beauty-of-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-beauty-of-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of the Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Beauty of the Beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mourin Youssef<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed, it was very good<\/p>Genesis 1:31<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Everything in the beginning was made to be good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis. So many of the stories we would\u2019ve learnt as kids\noriginate from the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve and the story of creation,\nCane and Abel, Noah\u2019s Ark, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and the list\ngoes on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, what wasn\u2019t emphasised as much was the immense\nbeauty and strength of each of these characters and how pivotal their stories\nare in setting the concrete foundation, we, as Christians, require to sustain a\ndeep spiritual connection with our creator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of these characters, their reliance on God was what\ngot them started on their divine path. And when fallen or hindered, they\noffered their imperfections to the Lord for Him to utilise, and make a tool out\nof to execute his perfect plan. We are not called as equipped but rather made\nequipped through His perfect calling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph near the end of Genesis can be recognised as an extremely influential figure. He saved his family and their livestock from a severe famine. One might observe the story of Joseph through a superficial lens and think that a lot of his success was given to him because he was a follower of God. \u201cthe Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man<\/em>\u201d, (Genesis 39:2) right? But when one digs deeper what they will see is that the context of this verse holds more power than what a mere skim read would expose. A poor, helpless slave, abandoned by his brothers, trodding on unfamiliar land all alone, soon to be imprisoned. What type of success is that? How did it all go so wrong if Joseph was a man of the Lord? \u201cAnd we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those\u00a0who are the called according to\u00a0His\u00a0purpose.<\/em>\u201d (Romans 8:28) This is the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beginning of Joseph\u2019s life was full of tribulation and he was faced with so many moments anyone would describe as impossibly redeemable. The beauty is His beginning was that He did not define success by an arbitrary means of gaining secular pleasures. He defined it as a reliance on God so powerful that \u201cthe Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand<\/em>\u201d (Genesis 39:3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph was a prisoner like no other. Not only did God\nturn the hearts of the prison guards to favour him but he then went on to\nmanifest the power of God by interpreting the dreams of the prisoners and later\non, pharaoh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The magnificence of Joseph does not stop there. Yes, he was ready to serve God and yes, he accepted tribulations but furthermore, Joseph acknowledged the sovereignty of God. \u201cThen Joseph said to them, \u2018Do not interpretations belong to God? Therefore, relate them to me<\/em>.\u2019\u201d (Genesis 40:8) He glorified God and not himself for he recognised that anything he could offer as a man was a gift presented unto him by God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph was showered with the blessings of God. Not only was he released from prison, but he was made to be ruler of Egypt. \u201cJoseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable\u201d<\/em> (Genesis 41:49). Immeasurable! Our God is not a god of holding back, he pours His rich grace upon us and loves us, but only if we keep him close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did he manage to turn his life around so\nsignificantly? It\u2019s simple. He projected his love towards the Lord at all times.\nHe trusted in the Lord. He waited for the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph was successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us always carry around this spirit of patience and\nlongsuffering, aspiring to be reborn everyday to remain close with Christ. The\nbeginning will always be the best, the peak of motivation and in some cases the\nhighlight of the journey. Just look at Joseph, he was his father\u2019s favourite,\nclothed in a colourful garment to testify for this very fact. The beginning of\nhis journey retained some of the best moments, but he did not forget the Lord.\nIn joy and in misery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success or failure of an endeavour is solely dependent on the beginning, and this beginning will be prosperous if made as sacred as the relationship Joseph upheld with God. \u00a0Whether it\u2019s study, work, getting active or even starting a new spiritual cannon. Did you build a strong enough foundation to ensure that failures are limited? If fallen, did you ensure that you have something to lean on to get back up? \u201cIn God I have put my trust; I will not fear.<\/em>\u201d (Psalm 56:4) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must never feel comfortable with our current state of\nspirituality. This sensation of comfort is prime time to be under the strike of\nthe enemy. Just as the beginning was good, striving and praying for the end to\nbe equal is the best form of preparation we can do to be able to reach our ultimate\ngoal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a man completes his search, then he starts over; and when he stops, he will still be perplexed.<\/p>Wisdom of Sirach 18:6 <\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Beauty of the Beginning By Mourin Youssef Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed, it was very good Genesis 1:31 Everything in the beginning was made to be good. Genesis. So many of the stories we would\u2019ve learnt as kids originate from the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve and the story … Continue reading “The Beauty of the Beginning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7064,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7062\/revisions\/7064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}