2009 - Day 13 - The Turning Point

January 13, 2009 … Swindoll’s Topic for Today: The Turning Point

Passage of the Day: Genesis 41: 1 - 16 ... Please read and study this passage to which you are linked here.

My Journal for Today: And after I read that this morning, Charles Swindoll in his devotional makes a good point. That day when Joseph woke up I doubt if he had an inkling that his day would be a turning point in his life. Swindoll reminds me that the day Moses would witness the burning bush probably looked like any other dull and dreary day in the life of a shepherd when he woke up. And young David, who was out there in the fields watching over his daddy’s flocks, on the morning before he was to be anointed king by Samuel as the king-elect, probably had no clue that the day was to be a turning point in his life.

I remember that day on April 13, 1983 when I woke up to head in to work. And little did I know that when I plunked in a cassette tape in my car’s tape player to listen on the way to work that what I was to hear, and what was to happen shortly thereafter, would change the course of my life forever – yes, even my eternal life. Because on that morning I heard a story and some things transpired shortly thereafter that broke me to the point of me being able to receive Christ as my Savior and Lord. Yes, for me that morning, which started out as just another day, was THE TURNING POINT for my life.

And for Joseph, his day, depicted in Gen. 41, when he woke up as a prisoner in a dungeon in Egypt, had spent two full years there and had been passed over by the very man he was about to see in Pharaoh’s court again. But as events unfolded, Joseph began to see that that things would never be the same for him again.

You’ve read it in today’s highlight passage above. Joseph was brought to the king’s court because FINALLY Pharaoh’s butler, prompted by the king having a dream which couldn’t be interpreted by all the Egyptian wise men, remembered that Joseph, two years before, had interpreted his dream accurately. And so, Pharaoh called for Joseph and laid out the dream, telling him, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.”

And don’t you just love Joseph’s humble witness, as he retorts, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” As Swindoll point out, most of us, being put in Joseph’s place would probably have said something like, “Yeah; good Pharaoh; … and if that dude over there (pointing to the Butler) had just remembered me two years ago, I would have been here a lot earlier to help you with your dreams” But there were no sour grapes from Joseph. No, this was a man, as we pointed out yesterday, who had been put through the caldron of heat for two years; and he was ready for this TURNING POINT moment. And his reply was cool and calculated … humble to the core, conditioned by his readiness from the previous two years.

I’m thinking about that this morning as I sit here in my quiet time with God. I say to myself, “What could happen today which could be a turning point for me or for someone else?” Yesterday, our cleaning lady told me that she’d like for me to help a friend of hers come to receive Christ into her life. Who knows, maybe on that day, God might use me to be part of His design in the turning point in someone’s eternal life. Yes, who knows? Well, God knows; … and that’s all I need to know.

My Prayer Today: Lord, I’m in your hands. If this is to be a turning point day; I’m ready! Amen