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Today is Tuesday January 12, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the book of Genesis chapters 34-36. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-january-12

To this day I will never understand some of the things that God allowed people to do in the Old Testament. Jacob had four wives and thirteen children between them. Can you imagine four wives? Well, I believe there are some countries and religions who still allow this so I am sure they do, but I bet they probably learned the consequences of it eventually. As you can imagine, all the children were probably not brought up in a godly way, (I have three half-brothers and none of them serve God) and they were not as many of them chose to mingle in with the Canaanites, who were very worldly. One of the biggest mistakes we can make as a Christian is to mingle with the world. Jacob found this to be true as his only daughter, Dinah was raped. “And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter: which thing ought not to be done.” - Genesis 34:1-7. You know, women did not have the rights that they have today back then, if they were found with a man, whether it was consensual or not, they were labeled and thought to be a harlot, which is a prostitute, and persecuted for it. So, when Dinah's brothers heard what had been done to their sister they became angry and wanted revenge, which led to them killing the man that raped her along with other men. One thing I would like to stress is that regardless of whether or not a person is in the world, no man has the right to defile a woman. Yes, she should have not even been around those people, but no one had the right to touch her, no matter how rich or powerful he is.

Jacob should not have even allowed his family to associate with these people, but he did and they all suffered because of it. It seemed that the entire time that Jacob was in Succoth he had no relationship with God, but when Jacob learned of what his sons had done he knew it was time to get things right with Him, so we went before God, asking Him and his family for help. “And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, 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. 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.” - Genesis 35:1-4. There were three things that Jacob said to his family that are important for us learn as well. 1. Put away the strange gods. Strange gods are anything that takes us away from following God's commands, this can be a hobby, job, or even a person. Old sinful habits must be forsaken in order to get right with God. We need to place God at the center of all that we do and in doing so, we will set an example for our children to follow. "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." - I Corinthians 8:6. 2. Be clean and change your garments. We are to be cleansed by the blood of Christ, when we repent and call on Jesus He will wash us clean and give us new garments. "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse." -Matthew 9:16. 3. Worship only God. God needs to be at the center of everything that we do, He wants us to enjoy life, but He also wants us to seek Him and obey Him while doing so. "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." - Luke 4:8.

I remember growing up and facing one trial after another, we lived in poverty, my father left my mother to raise three kids on her own, and I was molested (not by an adult) when I was nine, but at that time although I knew who God was, my family did not know Him personally. I will be the first to tell you that, at times, I know it is hard to be a Christian, especially when certain tragedy comes our way. I am sure that I am not the only one that thinks this way, but I can also say that being someone who has lived in the world and experienced just about every thing it has to offer, I rather be a Christian with nothing than a person without Christ and have everything. I realize now that had I known Him then much of the turmoil that I faced could have been avoided. It is so important that we train our children in a godly way. I spent years running from God and people because I feared that I was so bad that even God would not want anything to do with me. I thank God and praise Him for keeping me safe and showing me that He does love me and wants the best for me, otherwise He wouldn't have put me through so much and not let me find Him. No matter what trials you face, I want you to know that God does love you and wants the best for you too. Stop running, stop blaming yourself, and most of all forgive your self, God forgives you, now it is time for you to forgive you. .

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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