“People can pick up skills relatively quickly, but character isn’t something you just pick up. Character is often forged over a long period of time and over multiple experiences, and it only changes with great and sustained effort. It can and does change, but it’s much harder to change your character than it is to learn skills.” (Wisdom in Leadership, 48 Craig Hamilton)
Last evening our sermon passage was found in Genesis 38. It is an ugly passage. It tells the story of Judah, his sons Er, Onan, and Shelah, and Er's wife Tamar. Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. His sons are so evil that God kills both Er and Onan for their wickedness. Because Judah fears the loss of his remaining son, he fails to fulfill his obligation to Tamar of marrying her to his last son so that an heir might be raised up to Er. Seeing the failure of her father-in-law, Tamar takes matters into her own hand by dressing as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah. Judah, unaware of with whom he has had sex, subsequently hears that Tamar is pregnant by immorality. He demands that she be brought out and burned for her crime (can anyone say "hypocrite?"). Tamar then produces the evidence against her father-in-law and he relents. The story ends with the birth of twin boys. I jokingly called the sermon the "Jerry ...
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