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.