Good Monday morning (2-21-11),

I have those days in which nothing seems to go right. It’s like I get up on the wrong side of the bed. My attitude is anything but Christ-like, growling inside myself at anything that moves. It would be easy enough to just lay it all off on the devil, saying he’s the cause of all my problems, but in actuality, every morning I have the power to make the choice to either be positive or negative in my attitude.

The Bible is filled with stories about people who had both positive and negative attitudes as they lived out the call of God in their life. In particular, the book of Hebrews has in it a chapter which outlines just a few of history’s confident men and women of faith. These people believed in promise, and they lived their lives as if they believed in what God had to say.

One such man, Joseph, who was one of Jacob’s many sons, saw dreams and visions about God’s call upon his life. But instead of being elevated in the eyes of his family and community, as a young man, he was promptly sold into slavery by his wickedly jealous brothers. Then as a slave, he was thrown into prison after being falsely accused of sex crimes.

I’m expecting that while Joseph sat in his filthy rat and disease infested Egyptian prison, he no doubt suffered the ultimate hardship of feeling abandoned by his god. No doubt the devil was lying to this man of destiny by whispering, “God has abandoned you,” or perhaps other such lies like, “There’s not one god, but many. The gods of Egypt are punishing you for not submitting to them. Begin to worship Baal and your fortunes will soon begin to improve! ”

While the Bible doesn’t provide a complete record of what this man suffered in that dreadful place, it does point out in detail that Joseph endured, and in doing so, Joseph qualified himself to complete that great work which God had planned for his life.

What was that? None other than to be greatly exalted. Joseph was hand selected to be the second most powerful man in the world, second only to the lofty Pharaoh. Not to mention that he saved countless from starvation, while at the same time establishing Israel’s national womb, from which she would later victoriously emerge. All this happened because he kept a good attitude through his trials unto faithful obedience to The Call.

Joseph was a great man, but the greatest of all is of course Jesus Christ. This man walked in unfathomable, supernatural joy. You could say that He had a great attitude about life. It was this attitude that endured the cross, while at the same time discarding its shame. That great joy could only have worked in Christ because He chose to look past the pain and insult of rejection and embrace His call.

This man allowed Himself to be crucified, a despised servant to sinful humanity. Hated by most, He constantly encountered emotional pain and insult. Jesus was unjustly condemned by the Jew’s cherished establishment. Even as He healed their sick and raised their dead, ungrateful men took up stones to kill Him, to which Jesus famously replied, “At my Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?"

Our Savior sustained the weary. And for this act of grace, He still had to offer His back to those who beat Him and His cheeks to those who ripped out His beard. He didn’t hide or shrink away from those who mockingly spit in His face.

Think of it, they spit in the face of God! They spit in our face!

Still, through it all, Jesus set His face like flint, knowing He could not be put to shame because His Heavenly Father would vindicate. He became not only our Savior and High Priest, but also the pattern after which we must all design our lives.

To be Christ-like means we must adopt and walk in the same pattern of attitudes He walked in, even when life does insult us on a daily or even moment by moment basis.

This was the pattern Joseph saw by the Spirit as he encountered rot in his own prison. For the joy set before him, Joseph actively endured his own cross. He saw beyond his own trials, because Joseph actively gazed into the promise he too had seen.

I am absolutely convinced that the Great Record of Faith is still being written. Hebrews 11 records only a few who obtained a good report through faith. When we make the choice each day to put on the new man’s attitude of charity, hope, and faith, our actions will always reflect the pattern of Christ to the world, a pattern the world desperately, desperately needs to behold.

Wayne Witcher.

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. Philippians 3:12-14 The Message