:: To Worship Him ::

 

   “Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.  So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set.  And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.  Then he dreamed and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.  Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”  Genesis 28:11-15

 

   In this passage we see Jacob, as the saying goes, ‘bone tired.’  After traveling all day he’s exhausted and lays down to rest for the night using a stone as his pillow.  Imagine?  Jacob must have been extremely tired to fall asleep on a rock!  Well he did, and God showed up in the midst of his dream with prophetic promises for Jacob.  He gave him two promises.  (1)  God promises Jacob He would never leave or forsake him.  This promise came at a time in Jacob’s life when he needed a word of encouragement.  He had many regrets about his past, he was lonely, and was uncertain what the future held for him.  Jacob heard God’s speaking to him for the first time saying; “Even though you have been a rebel and a selfish one, I still plan to fulfill my promise to you.”  In Philippians 1:6 we still have this wonderful promise.  “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you (me) will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

 

   (2) God also promises a place for Jacob.  Through all the years of conflict in the Middle East, Israel has never owned all the land that was promised her. Since it was promised by God, and it has yet to be fulfilled, there will be a day when all of Israel will belong to Jacob’s descendants.  God said it, and it will come to pass.  We too have the promise that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us.  To me, it brings great comfort knowing that I have a place to call home on this earth, and even more comforting to know when I leave here,  I will dwell with Christ in the heavenly home He has prepared for me. In John 14:1-3 Jesus said;  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

 

   In the midst of Jacob’s life, the Lord stepped in and turned his life around.  God’s promises meant a great deal to Jacob for it caused Jacob to take the stone that he had rested on and make a memorial.  He also made a vow saying that the stone would be God’s house, and that all that God would give to him, he would give a tenth back to God. (verse 22)  God is all about restoration.  We can always be comforted when we know that we belong to God.  He will always complete the good work that He began in us.  Our response should always be a life given in worship to Him.  The hard places to lay our heads,  that have caused us discomfort, will always bring encouragement and promise from our Father.  We must set up memorials along the way to remind us of our Father’s goodness.  To worship Him is a privilege! 

 

   Are you one who’s afraid to try something new or take risks?  I am that way when ordering food at a restaurant where I have been before.  I tend to always eat the selections that I know that I have enjoyed before.  I get very disappointed when I order anything else and am not happy with it. I know that I am missing out on many wonderful dishes because I am that way. There are many other areas of my life where I rather enjoy the risk factor.

 

   In the first Chapter of Joshua, we read about the Lord speaking to Joshua after the death of Moses.  He said in verse two, “Moses My servant is dead.  Now therefore, arise go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them–the children of Israel.  Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I said to Moses.”

 

   Moses had just died, and his successor was called to lead the nation of Israel into the Promised Land.  This adventure would certainly bring enormous peril and risks.  If Joshua was the least bit human, I’m sure he must have offered God several buts.  But God I can’t, but God I can’t (louder), But God, help! but God, I’m scared, send someone else!  One wonders what would have happened if Joshua had refused this God given assignment.  Would God have raised someone else up, or did God have a second choice waiting in the wings?  We can only give Joshua credit for his great faith and courage.  He took up the mantel given him and courageously took up his mission.

 

   We daily face obstacles that seem to stretch us sometimes to the limit.  In those nail-biting experiences we learn who we are and who God is.  Risky situations when attempted always produce spiritual growth.  In retrospect we can always look back, have a good sigh of relief, and give testimony of what an awesome God we serve.  When we walk hand in hand with our Father as worship to Him, we can always be risk-takers.  If He gives us assignments that seem to stretch us to the limit, then He is trustworthy to oversee it in our lives. Why would I want to settle for a limited menu?  Unless I am willing to be a risk taker I will (a) never become the child that God wants me to be.  (b)  My life will be controlled by fear rather than faith.  (c)  I will not be using my potential for the kingdom of God.  (d)  I will be operating in disobedience.  (c)  I will miss out on the blessings that God has for me.  (e)  I will for sure lead a boring life.  No color, no dynamics, only grays.

 

   John Henry Jowett, a renown English preacher pointed out the temptation of self-preservation and its results.  He said, “It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows through the cultivation of an insignificant life.  Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations.  If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass.  Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side.  As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied.  Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ, and his sufferings will be increased on every side.”  

 

   Let’s not miss out on the Promised Land!  Be a risk taker!

 

   “On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone–however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks–when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.  And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”  Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”  John 6:22-26

 

   If you are a follower of Jesus,what answer would you give if someone asked you the reason you follow Jesus?  I suppose there are as many answers as there are Christians. The people that followed Jesus to Capernaum were looking for free meal tickets.  They had dined sufficiently by the hand of the Master and they rather enjoyed the welfare.  Their reason for following Jesus was obviously selfish.  If we base our life upon following Jesus for what we want, or what we can get, instead of who He is and what He has done for us, we are in for some bumpy times.  On those days when we are tried and tested; on those days when hardships come and our enemy has us in his sights; on those days when the waves seem to capsize our boat, do we turn away in disillusionment from following the Lord?  As unpleasant as trials and testings are, they cause us to answer that all important question: Lord, why am I following You? 

 

   “Lord, help me to rid my heart of anything that is the least bit selfish in my relationship with You.  I want to follow you with my whole heart…..For I have decided to follow You, to worship You, Lord Jesus.  And I don’t plan on turning back.  Period!”   

 

 

   The popular speaker and writer, Charles Swindoll, once found himself with too many commitments in too few days.  He got nervous and tense about it.  “I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day,” he recalled in his book Stress Fractures.  “Before long, things around our home started reflecting the pattern of my hurry-up style.  It was becoming unbearable to all.

 

   I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen.  She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day.  She began hurriedly, ‘Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin’ and I’ll tell you really fast.’  Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, “Honey, you can tell me…and you don’t have to tell me really fast.  Say it slowly.”  I’ll never forget her answer: ‘Then listen slowly.’

 

   In the Old Testament there is an account of Jacob being forced to flee his family after receiving the blessing of God from his father, Isaac.  He ran as a result of his broken relationship with his brother, Esau, who threatened to kill him.  Alone after leaving his family, he was forced to sleep in the wilderness area of Bethel.  Here he encountered God personally for the first time.  In a dream he saw heaven open up to him and the Lord spoke a promise of giving the land he was sleeping on to him.  This dream caused Jacob to realize that truly God was in this place.  He said; “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”  (Genesis 28:16) 

 

   How often the Lord has to remove us from our comfortable and predictable setting in order to speak to us.  Jacob was alone out in the wilderness, in a foreign place, with nothing to distract him.  Because he was forced out of his comfort zone, he was led into an encounter with God who gave him a fresh vision and purpose for his life.  Charles Swendoll learned that one of his most precious possessions was trying to share their thoughts with him. In his haste and frustrations he had shut-out his loved ones and he hadn’t even recognized it.

 

   In this age of speed, high tech and gadgets, we simply must turn it off (easier said than done).  If we don’t, we’re in danger of missing those precious voices of our loved ones and the very voice of God!  God  loves us so much and has so much to share.  Slow down!  Quiet……  Sh………..  He is speaking.  Are you listening?

 

 

   I read where a student from Korea was complaining about how difficult it is to learn the English language.  He felt that American idioms were particularly difficult to comprehend.  He had studied for nine years in preparation for attending college in the United States.  On his first day, as he was walking across the campus, an American student casually greeted him with, “Hi, What’s the good word?”  The Korean boy stopped dead in his tracks.  He thought to himself; “I don’t know the good word!  You would have thought that after nine years someone would have told me what ‘the good word was!”  So he asked a fellow student, “What’s the good word?”  The response was, “Oh, not much.  How about you?”

 

   How about you?  Do you know the ‘good word?’  Maybe each of these students knew the ‘Good Word’ but they used ‘good word’ as a plastic way of greeting. Or, maybe they didn’t know the ‘Good Word’ and they were waiting for someone to share it with them. 

 

   Fact is: There is only one true and living God, who exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that He is worthy of all honor, praise, and worship as the Creator, Sustainer, and Beginning and End of all things.  (Exodus 20:2,3; Revelation 4:11; 5:9,10; Isaiah 43:1,7,21)

   Fact is: Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.  He came to destroy the works of Satan, and He disarmed the rulers and authorities, having triumphed over them. (John 1:1,14; 1 John 3:8; Colossians 2:15)

   Fact is: God proves His love for us, because when we were still sinners Christ died for us.  He died to deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us into His kingdom, and in Him we have redemption, and the forgiveness of sins.  (Romans 5:8; Colossians 1:13,14)

   Fact is: I believe that if I call upon the saving power of God, I can be a child of God’s.  I believe that His grace saves us through faith in Him, for it is a gift given and not the result of any works on my part.  (1 John 3:1-3; Ephesians 2:8)

   Fact is: Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth .  He is the head over all rule and authority.  (Matthew 28:18; Colossians 2:10)

   Fact is: Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. To bear much fruit and glorify the Lord, I must live my life abiding in Jesus Christ.  (John 15:5; John 15:8) 

   Fact is:  The Word of God will set me free.  The Bible is the only authoritative standard.  When I study and apply the Word of God in my life, I learn to prove what the will of God is for me, and what is good, acceptable and perfect.  (John 8:32; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Romans 6:13; 12:1,2) 

                            AND THAT’S FOREVER THE GOOD WORD!