January 02, 2021: SOAP #4048:  Genesis 3-5; Luke 2

SCRIPTURE:  Luke (NIV) 2:43-49 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. … they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, …When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”  “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

OBSERVATION:  In His words, I hear the 12-year-old asking His earthly mother, “Didn’t you know…?”  or “Where did you expect me to be?”  “Don’t you remember the angel who told you to expect my birth?  Don’t you remember the visit and gifts of the men from the east?  Do you remember Simeon and Anna meeting you at the temple?  Mom, where would you expect to find me?” 

It seems to me that Mary and Joseph would have saved themselves three anxiety filled days if they had brought what they knew from their past and applied it to the present. 

APPLICATION:   I hear the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Leon, what were you expecting?  Don’t you remember what I said to you?  Did you expect me to do nothing?” 

PRAYER:   Holy Spirit, help me to get to know the Father that I do not spend any time needlessly worrying if He will help me.  He sent Jesus!  He gave me the Bible!  Holy Spirit, He sent you to live in and work through me!    Amen. 

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity! 

SOAP Saga update:  I have been encouraged by several SOAP readers to continue adding some updates on my physical condition.  For several days after being released from the hospital, I was doing fine.  Just a little weak.  The past two-three days I have had some tightening in my chest and discomfort when I first lay down.  These are indicators that fluid is slowly leaking back into the chest cavity.  But today as Sharon was prayerfully reading Genesis, the Lord drew her attention to Genesis 1:6-9.  As God divided the waters in creation and assigned them their places, so God would divide the waters/lymphatic fluids in my chest and put them in their assigned place.  And Leon says, “Amen!”