FINALLY!

"Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?...Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.  You shall be in charge of my palace and all my people are to submit to your orders." Genesis 41:38-40  

FINALLY!
By Rev. William Dohle

I am a movie fan.  A big one!

In every movie, particularly in the action movies, there's a turning point.  It's the point in the film when things start "looking up" for the main character.  The growing up period is over.  The trials have stopped.  Now the real work of "saving the world" can begin.

It happens that way in the new Amazing Spider-man Movie.  Peter Parker is introduced...the lab where he'll find the spider is found...and eventually the spider bites him.  Then we, as an audience, wait until he gets used to his powers and stops using them like a spoiled child.  That happens after his Uncle is killed and from that point in the movie on, Spider-man starts to grow up.  We breathe a quiet "FINALLY" as sit on the edge of our seat as we watch him battle the Lizard man through the end of the film.

In some movies...in many I would say...that "FINALLY!" can't happen soon enough.  The opening seems to take so long.  When the turnaround comes, we sigh: Finally... the story has taken its turn.  Finally...the bad guy will pay for their crimes.  Finally...things are looking up here and the good that has been done will finally get its just reward!  Finally!!

That is the point we are at now in Joseph's story.  Joseph has suffered enough.  Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, he was falsely accused by Potipher's wife and forgotten by the chief cupbearer.  What more can happen to him!?  When finally he comes before Pharaoh to interpret his dream, we hold our breath.  "Is Joseph's trials over?"  And when Pharaoh raises him up, we sigh and breathe a quiet "FINALLY!"

FINALLY Joseph is getting what he deserves.  FINALLY he is coming into his own!  FINALLY things will work out right for Joseph.

And they do... in large measures!

Joseph, the downtrodden, is raised up to the highest position.  Second only to Pharaoh himself!  He is given a new name, an Egyptian name "Zaphenath-Paneah", and given a well-bred wife.  He goes about in a chariot, and "men shouted before him, 'Make way!'"  He was dressed in the finest linen and had gold necklaces placed upon him.  And "...Pharaoh put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt."

Talk about the comeback!  Talk about exaltation.  When Joseph was at his lowest, God raised him up and seated him among the highest authorities.  And there.  THERE beside Pharaoh, the Joseph, the son of Jacob ruled the land of Egypt, blessing those who had blessed him.  What a blessed turnaround God had provided Joseph with!

So... do we experience such turnarounds?  Or are they just for the movies and the stories of Scripture?  Do our lives make a turnabout?  Do we ever breathe a quiet "Finally!" when the good days have finally come??

I think we do...but not in the ways we would come to expect.  Few of us will drop as low or raise up as high as Joseph did.  But we may experience turnarounds in other ways too.

An alcoholic...gets sober.
A cancer patient...goes into remission.
A job seeker...finds employment.
A pregnant mother...gives birth to a heathy child.
A person...gets baptized!

All these are signs of turnabout.  All these are opportunities to breathe a "FINALLY"...and turn a corner in life.  Just like Joseph, the previous life has passed.  And a new life has begun!

But still even after these turnabouts, we will experience pain and grief.  Even the biggest miracle patient...still has to die!

But God has another "turnaround" in store for us then.  A turnaround he describes in Jeremiah.

"I will turn their mourning into gladness;  I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." (Jer. 31:13)

Our God is a God of turnarounds, both here and in the world to come.  So...rejoice!  Celebrate when those turnarounds come.  And wait with me as we wait together for God to finally turn this whole world around.  So that together we can exclaim a great big: "FINALLY, GOD!"

God of the Turnabout, you turned Joseph's life around and made him a blessing to others.  Bless us too so that we can turn around and bless those around us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

God's Dreams for your Dreams

"Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God?"  Genesis 40:8b


God's Dreams for your Dreams
By Rev. William Dohle

Dreams surround us...both in sleep and throughout our lives.

Dreams in our sleep occur with strange characters, family members long past, exotic locations, and eerie circumstances.  They can be frightening at times.  Or they can be exhillerating.  In dreams we can fly to the highest heaven or travel to a distant past.  Dreams can involve living toilets(like my son, Matthew, who once described to us a toilet that ate people in his dreams) or they can involve people you haven't seen in years.  There are nightmares...and pleasant dreams.

Waking dreams start when we're young and continue throughout our lives.  They start when that first teacher asks us: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  And throughout our lives they change and mature.  These dreams we say "really do come true", as our goals are fulfilled and our desires realized.  Waking dreams can involve a future career in a certain field or the ability to travel.  Waking dreams can be for ourselves, or for our family.  We might dream that our kids get into college or our grandson finds a spouse.  They are wishes.  They are hopes.  They are dreams!

Now, when Joseph speaks of dreams needing interpretation, we assume he's meaning the sleeping kind.  After all, all of the people whose dreams are interpreted by Joseph(Pharoah, his brothers, the cupbearer and the baker) have had sleeping dreams.  And we assume that only our sleeping dreams need interpretation.  We can't take them literally...but we can take our waking ones literally.  Our waking dreams really do come true, at least according to Disney.  Our sleeping ones...well, sometimes we hope they never come true.

But what if the interpretation of ALL our dreams belong to God.  What if we can't take, even our waking dreams literally?  What if God has dreams for us beyond our literal dream, dreams to fulfill our hearts desire?  What if God's dreams exist beneath the surface of our literal dreams?

For example: take a dream we see on television quite a bit.  The dream for success.  All the American Idol contestants, and any other reality show contestant, will attest to this.  "This is my dream," they tell the judges.

But is it REALLY?  Is this form of success really their dream?  On the surface it looks great.  Plenty of money.  Power to do what you want.  A whole nation knowing who you are.  What's better than that?  But looking beyond the literal dream, I wonder if they can consider the cost?  Does their dream include all the stress and worry and work necessary to achieve and sustain that success?  Do they see the days and weeks they'll spend alone, away from their family, surrounded only by their touring group?  Can they fathom how invasive the paparazzi will be once they are famous?  Do they understand the bigger you are...the harder you fall?

Probably not.  Their dreams don't include these things because their dreams are really dreams for fulfillment.  They dream to be recognized for something they are good at.  Maybe the dream to be the winner on American Idol is more the dream to have a good, well-paying job and be able to support their family better.

When God interprets our dreams, we are see beyond the obvious, to the desire of our hearts for the good of all.  We see that our dreams don't need to be literally true in order to be fulfilled.  We see that we can have what we truly long for, without the terrible price of the other.

For me, I have always wanted to be a published author, like the great writers I read.  I use to write stories at home and imagine them being published throughout the world.  A few years ago, that dream became reality.  Contemporary Drama Service published a number of plays I had written for church.  And, you know, the fulfillment I received was everything I ever imagined and more!  Was I a famous published author like Stephen King?  No!  But did I receive the fulfillment I was longing for in that dream?  Absolutely!  I may publish something again, but I will always remember that first time for in it, God reminded me that He knows my heart.  He knows what I long for.  And He likes to surprise!

So...what have you been dreaming of lately??  And what do you think God would say about it??

Almighty God, throughout history you have spoken to your people through their dreams.  Give us wisdom to interpret both our waking and our sleeping dreams that we might work together, for good, to the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Not me...but God!

“Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”  Genesis 41:38

Not me…but God!

By Rev. William Dohle

Sometimes I feel like the weakest man in the world!

Sitting with a family, after their loved one has passed away, there is nothing I can say.  No words of comfort that will fill the void left there.  I listen, nod my head, get some tears in my eyes, and then say, so powerlessly it seems, “Can I pray for you?”

After our prayer, they leave with tears and I wonder: Has any good come out of this?  I wish I could help them.  All I can do…is pray.

And yet there is power in that prayer.  Friday morning, early that morning, I prayed “God…let it rain!  We need the moisture so bad!”  I had prayed that before…countless times.  But this time, when the heavens opened up in a downfall, I stood at the window in awe.  I had prayed for that…and it happened!  My prayer was answered!  But it wasn’t my work that had done all of this.  It was God!

Joseph makes that same confession too in the presence of Pharaoh himself!  After Pharaoh summons him to interpret his dream and says, in his regal tone: “I had a dream and no one can interpret it.  But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

Now, most of us might blush and say, “It was nothing.” Or “Oh…thanks!”  We might tell Pharaoh, “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid.  My brothers back home actually threw me in a cistern and left me for dead for two dreams I interpreted for them.”

In other words… most of us would take the credit, especially if it was the king speaking to us.

But Joseph does not.  Instead Joseph points to God.  “I cannot do it…but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

It’s not me, Joseph says.  It’s God!  God is the one with the answers Pharaoh seeks.  God is the one who will get the praise.  It’s not Joseph.  It’s not his message.  It’s God’s message through Joseph.

And when Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream, the answer comes from God.  “…God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.”  This isn’t about Joseph.  It’s about God.  God is revealing his ways to Pharaoh through Joseph.  Joseph is merely a vessel of the Spirit of God.

This might seem amazing…astounding even…but we too can be vessels of God’s Spirit.  The Spirit of God has been poured out upon us all, Scripture tells us.  And so…whenever we pray, we are vessels of the Spirit of God, pouring that Spirit into the lives of those we pray for.  Whenever we offer to another a kind word to another, we become God’s mouthpiece with words of peace and hope and love.  Whenever we speak loving truth into a situation, we are God’s prophets.  Whenever we read Scripture to another, we are God’s messengers.

The list goes on and on.  And in every case, the credit goes to God.  For we do not pray to ourselves.  We pray to God.  Our praises rise to God.  Our petitions fall at God’s feet.  And, though we may have prayed for this or that to happen, we know that it isn’t us.  It’s the power of God at work within us.  For the world and everything belong to him!

God you have poured out your Spirit upon us so that, just like Joseph, our sons and daughters might prophesy, our young men see visions and our old men dream dreams and yet the work of it all is done by you.  In our weakest moments, help us see that you are still working for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Good Deed Gossip

"But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharoah and get me out of this prison." Genesis 40:14


Good Deed Gossip!
By Rev. William Dohle

"Did you hear?"
"Really?"
"Yes!  And that's not all.  There's more!"
"Oh do tell!"

Most of us will recognize these words as gossip.  The incepit snake that haunts the halls of school hallways, courthouses, work places, homes, and even churches!  The whisper of rumor, of hearsay, and sometimes of exaggerated facts, gossip has a way of breaking apart even the tightest of circles with its lies.

Gossip has always been cast in a negative light.  Even in the Bible.  Proverbs speaks of gossip in this way.  "A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends." (Proverbs 16:28).  We TRY not to gossip.  We try NOT to talk about people behind their back.  But inevitably, it happens.

But still, with that say, some gossip is actually good.  Necessary even.  Some gossip is the kind of gossip even God would want from his people!

We might call that gossip: Good Deed Gossip!

It happens like this... Someone does something GOOD to you, or to someone else.  Instead of forgetting about it, thanking them and moving on with your life, you tell others about the good deed they did.  You exaggerate the good deed, making it even better than it was to begin with.  You do what Martin Luther suggests and "put the best construction on everything", casting their motives as godly, the deed profoundly helpful, and yourself as grateful and humble as you could be.

That is the gossip God desires his people to have.  That is Good Deed Gossip!

Joseph in Genesis asks for this kind of gossip.  Begs for it even.  After interpreting the chief cupbearer's dream, Joseph tells him: "But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharoah and get me out of this prison.  For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon."

Joseph pleads that the chief cupbearer TALK ABOUT HIM BEHIND HIS BACK!  He's asking him to gossip!  But more than that.  He's asking him to brag and gossip and boast about the good deed Joseph did to Pharaoh.  Then, Joseph says, Pharaoh might have pity and release him out of prison where he doesn't belong.

Joseph is asking for Good Deed Gossip!

Of course, in the cupbearer's humanity, that doesn't happen.  The saddest verse of this chapter comes at the end: "The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him."(Gen. 40:23)

We too fall short when we try to Good Deed Gossip.  We forget those who do good to us, never mentioning what they do for our benefit, while we exaggerate the wrongs that others inflict on us.  We forget about the time they spent with us when we were sick in the hospital, or the kind words they said to us as we were in distress.  We forget about the prayers that were offered on our behalf or the kindness they showed to us.

And why is that the case?  Why are we so prone to forget the right and exaggerate the wrong?  Because, in our sinfulness, Good Deed Gossip is just not that interesting!  It might be cool at first to remember the good that other's have done...but there's no "developing story."  Nothing changes in the good.   Whereas the bad gossip, there's always room for worse!

Take, for example, George Clooney's work as a United Nations' Ambassador of Peace...and the recent divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.  Which of the two are getting the most press?  Which of them inspire conversation in the gossip circles?  The second of course!  Because it's interesting.  Because it's changing.  And because we feel better about ourselves when we can compare ourselves with others who are failing, not when they are succeeding.

Perhaps that was why the chief cupbearer forgot about Joseph.  Maybe he wished to think he had done it himself.  Or maybe he didn't think it was all that interesting.

In any case, the cupbearer forgot to pass on Joseph's Good Deed Gossip.  He forgot the good he did.

Will you?  Will you gossip about the good others do for you?  Or will you continue to forget the good and exaggerate the bad?  What kind of gossip will you be?  One that revels in the good deeds of others or one that takes delight in their downfall?  It's your choice.


God of Joseph, as you forgive and forget our wrong we do while remembering the good we do in you, help us to do the same.  Give us tongues that spread the good, the joyful, the laughter, and the grace that you have shown us, through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

How Blessed Are You!

"The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered..."  Genesis 39:2

How Blessed Are You!
By Rev. William Dohle

This week didn't go as I thought it would.

I had planned on going up to Chicago with our Jr. Youth Group.  I had planned the whole trip.  From the meeting with World Relief to the fun day at Six Flags to worship on Sunday morning at Resurrection Lutheran Church where a forgotten friend of mine is serving.

I had planned it all so well.  And I was looking forward to it too.  I had started counting down the days until my leaving.  The blessings of the Lord are upon us!  This weekend will be grand.

Of course God had other plans.

Wednesday I received a phone call from Walter Lelm's family.  Walt had passed away the previous day.  Would we be willing to have a service for him on Saturday at the church?

Very quickly my plans changed.  My trip with the kids was canceled as I prepared to celebrate Walter Lelm's life and what God has done for and through him.  I called my supply preacher for Sunday and told her I would be in town and would do services.  With a funeral on Saturday and services on Sunday, this weekend was turning out to be like every other one.  Busy with ministry!

At first I must admit I grumbled.  Loudly at times.  I was looking forward to going with our kids(and my son) to Chicago.  I had planned this trip!  The blessings of rest and refreshment and fun were ripped away from me.

Joseph's life was turned upside down in much the same way.  Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, had already experienced a lifetime upset.  The brothers he loved had sold him into slavery!  What more could happen to him!  But the blessings of God were upon him and Joseph found himself in the house of Potipher, an official in Egypt.  There he blessed Potipher and his household.  So blessed was he that Joseph was put in charge of Potipher's whole house!  Life was looking up for him, slave though he was.

Only one problem. Potipher's wife had taken a liking to him!  And, one night, she decides to make her advances known.  Joseph, though, rejects her.  Potipher's wife doesn't like that.  So she lies to her husband, accusing Joseph of taking advantage of her.  Potipher is outraged.  He throws Joseph in prison!

But something happens in prison too.  Potipher might have rejected Joseph...but God hasn't!  And the Lord is still with Joseph even in prison.  So there, the Bible says, "...the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there."(v. 22).  Though rejected, God still blesses Joseph.  Though Joseph's plans have changed, God's have not.


I too after struggling with my own change of plans, have realized how blessed I am being here.  I am blessed to be a blessing and a comfort to Walter's family at his family.  I am blessed to be surrounded by so many understanding and caring people.  I am blessed to be able to speak the Gospel to these people at this time in their lives.  I am blessed!


When you face a change of plans, look for the Lord's blessing.  Even in the darkest of nights, the Lord's light shines through.  Nothing can stop that blessing, that love!  Nothing in all creation!  Though our plans may change...sometimes dramatically...we can always count on God's love to sustain us and provide the rainbow that lies at the heart of even the worst storm.


God of Joseph, our lives sometimes change like his too and we wonder, where are you.  Assure us of your presence and your love.  Continue to bless us and those around us until we are blessed to see your presence for ourselves, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.