Worship: For Heaven’s Sake At God’s direction, Jacob had set out on his journey home, met and resolved the issues with his brother Esau, and settled in Canaan. That’s when the trouble began. (Read more below.)
Wellness: For Health’s Sake Pastor Flemons, a doctor of biblical wellness, discussed how self-control, the sixth law of health in the REFRESHING Way lifestyle, is related to the health of the digestive system. (Read more below.)
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TOPICS THIS WEEK
Worship: January 15 – The Marriage of Isaac; January 16 – Jacob and Esau; January 17 – Jacob’s Flight and Exile; January 18 – The Night of Wrestling; January 19 – The Return to Canaan; January 20 – Joseph in Egypt; January 21 – Joseph and His Brothers [All topics per Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen G. White, accessible at this link: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp]
Wellness: THE REFRESHING WAY LIFESTYLE FOR THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM January 15 – 21
NEXT RETREAT: February 20-March 9, 2017.
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Words of Encouragement
Psalm 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps shall slide.
Revelation 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
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For Heaven’s Sake…
Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And that’s how the trouble began. Dinah hung out with the wrong crowd. Before long, she was defiled by a sexual encounter with Shechem, the prince of the country. The Bible says that his soul clave unto her, that he loved her, and made official plans to marry her.
But the sons of Jacob had other plans of their own. Adding trouble to trouble, they deceived the men of the city into being circumcised as an official part of the marital contract. On the third day of their circumcision, when the men were most weakened, two of Jacob’s sons (Simeon and Levi) slew all the men of the city and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house. The sons of Jacob then took captive all the children and wives and took possession of all the wealth of the city.
Jacob was embarrassed and troubled and feared for their lives. Jacob believed that the Canaanites and the Perizzites would target them for war. Being small in number, Jacob moved his family to Bethel, the place where he met God after fleeing from his brother Esau. It was at this place that he had the dream of angels traveling up and down the ladder bridging heaven and the earth, with God standing above. He had fled from his parents’ home to save his life, after deceiving his father into blessing him with his brother’s birthright. The seeds of deception were bearing horrible fruit in another generation.
“While Jacob was thus bowed down with trouble, the Lord directed him to journey southward to Bethel. The thought of this place reminded the patriarch not only of his vision of the angels and of God’s promises of mercy, but also of the vow which he had made there, that the Lord should be his God. He determined that before going to this sacred spot his household should be freed from the defilement of idolatry. He therefore gave direction to all in the encampment, ‘Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.’PP 205.2
“With deep emotion Jacob repeated the story of his first visit to Bethel, when he left his father’s tent a lonely wanderer, fleeing for his life, and how the Lord had appeared to him in the night vision. As he reviewed the wonderful dealings of God with him, his own heart was softened, his children also were touched by a subduing power; he had taken the most effectual way to prepare them to join in the worship of God when they should arrive at Bethel. ‘And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.’”PP 205.3
They journeyed to Bethel in safety, for the terror of God was upon all the surrounding cities. None of them dared to attack the small band. But death took the lives of the two closest to Jacob. The aged Deborah died. She had been his mother’s nurse since before Rebekah’s marriage to Isaac and she had been like a mother to Jacob. And Jacob’s beloved Rachel also died, just after the birth of Benjamin.
With Rachel gone, Jacob’s love and preference for their firstborn was evident. Jacob gave to Joseph a coat of many colors. This coat of distinction excited the jealousy of the sons born to Leah and Jacob. They feared the younger Joseph would receive the coveted birthright of Leah’s firstborn. The horrible fruit of polygamy was now being seen.
But Jacob was not completely aware of the real feelings of Leah’s sons, or he never would have sent Joseph alone to check on them as they fielded the herds. Joseph never returned home. The sons of Leah, Joseph’s brothers, stripped him of his coat and sold him to Ismaeelites for twenty pieces of silver. They soaked the coat of many colors in the blood of a kid goat and returned it to their father, claiming to have found it. Now seeds of another sort would eventually bear fruit.
(Read chapters 34 to 37 in Genesis and read chapter 19, “The Return to Canaan,” in Patriarchs and Prophets, by Ellen G. White, available at this link: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp.)
For Health’s Sake…
The principle for self-control is derived from the honey principle found in Proverbs 24:13; and Proverbs 25:16 and 27. Together, they essentially say this: Abstain from things that are harmful and do in moderation the things that are good. This is the principle for self-control.
Substances like alcohol and tobacco in all forms must be avoided. They harm the body by introducing toxins that place added burden on the organs of elimination. Repeated use causes irreversible damage and cancers of the digestive system.
Special biblical instruction given about wine is often confusing to the surface reader. Fermented wine is really grape juice that has gone bad. It should not be introduced into the system at all. Wine in the cluster is really grape juice freshly squeezed from grapes. Isaiah 65:8 says “new wine is found in the cluster, … Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it.”
And 1 Timothy 5:23 recommends grape juice for stomach ailments, as grape juice is alkaline and is healing to the stomach that is pained from too much acid. Some would suggest, however, that this refers to wine in its fermented state. Who would drink an alcoholic beverage to heal acid indigestion? No one, says Pastor Flemons.