Forge Church

When we try and review our lives with only our own minds to filter our thoughts and feelings, that turns negative.....and is called "introspection." Instead, consider coming aside to enter with the Scriptures and Holy Spirit to a short session of "self reflection" with the Spirit and the Scriptures to filter our thoughts and feelings, and begin to bring them under the transformative control of Lord God.

This Spiritual Discipline is often presented as one of those that fall under the heading of disengagement, of withdrawal. I believe we begin that way....and then we engage with God with full intention to learn from Him. Our deep need is set against his deeper supply. Jesus said to his followers "When you fast..." and we are His followers, so, we too need to become those who fast for spiritual purpose.

The word "chaste" means "pure." As you will hear in this podcast, we the Church have slid far from that standard, the standard of holiness, and now Lord God wants us back. The spiritual discipline of chastity is one key step in that direction, leading towards a lifestyle of purity. If we are going to welcome His presence within us, we need His help to clean house first.

Jesus prized his time alone. He desperately needed time with Heavenly Father. To accomplish that, he came away from the crowds to be alone, in silence and in solitude. These two disciplines mark His life, and as we move towards our own Spiritual Formation....that of seeing the pattern life of Jesus formed in us....we need to be urged away from the scrum of life to time alone with Him.

Introduction to Spiritual Formation by Forge Church

In this sound file, Jan Patterson is reviewing the unique DNA that is clearly exhibited in Forge Church, and where its roots are from. Be blessed in the review of ministry that has birthed Forge.

Joseph has sent for his father and all the family to come down from Canaan to Goshen....the best land in Egypt. Pharoah welcomes Jacob and his sons, but because they are shepherds, is glad to see them move north, away from Egyptian cultural influence. Joseph continues to serve Pharoah, selling food for money, for livestock, and then for land and lives. All of Egypt is now enslaved to Pharoah.....except for Isarel and his sons in Goshen. Joseph then receives the blessing of the first born son.

In these chapters, we get to see Jacob at his worst, and Joseph at his best....and there is a reason. Joseph trust in God, first and foremost. He finally finishes testing his brothers hearts: do they care for Jacob their father; do they care for Benjamin that brother? When the emotional wall breaks down, Joseph...over and over....says that it is God who has sent him ahead of the family to save a remnant in the earth.

Joseph has opened the granaries of Egypt to feed people fleeing the famine. Jacob, seeing the famine strike his flocks and herds, sends his ten oldest sons to buy grain in Egypt. Arriving there, the sons of Israel bow to the Vizier, not recognizing Joseph as brother #11. Joseph recognizes his brothers, and sets out to shake their world, to determine their character. They have to leave Simeon in jail, go home to Jacob, and plead that Benjamin be allowed to go with them to Egypt to free Simeon and to gain trading rights, proving that they are not spies.

Jospeh, having been set over Pharoah's affairs as steward, married into royalty, and given power second only to Pharoah, goes out to bring in the foretold harvest. City by city, region by region, granaries overflow. In the time of plenty, God gives him 2 sons by Asenath....named for the blessings of forgetting the strife back in Canaan, and receiving fruitfulness in Egypt....his land of affliction. Then the famine comes, and so does the world, to buy grain from Joseph. His faithfulness in little things has opened a door to bless all the families of earth.

Joseph is rushed into the presence of Pharoah, who recounts 2 disturbing dreams that none of his court Seers and Magicians can interpret. Joseph, giving all credit to God first, interprets, and then suggests ways for the nation to survive the coming famine. Having humbly submitted himself to God in his sojourn in Egypt, NOW the Covenant God of Israel exalts Joseph, in due time.

Joseph is set over all the prisoners to care for them because The Lord is with him. Pharoah is mightily angry with two of his servants, his cupbearer and the head baker, and remands them into the custody of Potiphar, who places them under Joseph's care. Joseph offers to interpret their two disturbing dreams, and the interpretations from God are authenticated 3 days later.

Joseph is been up and down in his life since he was introduced. Now he is in charge of the prison into which Pharoah has remanded his cup-bearer and the head baker, who Potiphar puts under Josephs care. These two who have greatly offended Pharoah have individual dreams one night, and are greatly downcast for there is no "Book Of Dreams" and spiritual practitioner to interpret those dreams. Joseph points to God for interpretation, delivers it, and see the authentication of the interpretations lived out in three days.

In this episode, Joseph rises from being a Hebrew slave, to being the steward over all of the estate of Potiphar, Pharoah's captain of the body guard. As he rises, he is solicited by Potiphar's wife, who will not take "NO" for an answer. The lessons of Joseph's purity are stark against the land of Egypt and its idolatrous immorality. Cast into the prison in Potiphar's house, Joseph has avoided the death penalty, but is now incarcerated with Pharoah's prisoners. Circumstances have changed; the LORD has not.

In Genesis 38, we have some of the most explicit sexual content in all of Scripture, but the compiler-by-the-Holy-Spirit of Genesis set this dark account in the Scriptures to (1) contrast with God's care/Joseph's response in the next chapters, and (2) set the stage for the departure from Canaan to Egypt that is about 25 years away. The Lord is also after Judah's heart, the seed-carrier, and uses His Providence to assure progeny from this wayward son of Jacob.

In this introduction to Joseph's Story, there is a review of the previous series entitled Jacob's Story. Then, at the pinnacle of Jacob's relationship with God, we are slammed by the surrounding deaths and circumstances that would unhorse the man and his destiny. Use your zoom out "tool" to get a God's Eye view of what He is doing to set up the Joseph Story, and what He is doing in your life.

Apostle Peter wraps up his teaching by starting with the same theme: humility. When we put our worries and anxiety on deposit with Him, he sets us up to resist our Adversary, while guaranteeing the outcome. He has overcome so that we overcome, stand firm, and are made complete.

Apostle Peter turns his preaching to the elders of the house churches that are scattered up the center of Asia Minor. His urging the to be Shepherds and Pastors like Jesus was to his Disciples. And then he turns to the younger set and urges them to submit to those godly elders, and to all of the rest (us included) the "tie-on" humility....and to let it show.

Apostle Peter uses the furnace metaphor for the fiery suffering that is and will be falling on the Christians in Asia Minor. Then he urges them to rejoice that they are so qualified to be those who will suffer along with Jesus. Inserted in his preaching is a promise that those who suffer in Jesus' Name can expect the Spirit of God and Power to rest on them. There is cause for rejoicing.

Apostle Peter knows that suffering and persecution are coming to the churches of Asia Minor. He gives direct instructions for how believers are to live in the midst of pagan neighbors and when believers have to face Imperial persecution from Rome.