Jacob

Who was Jacob?
A twin. Heir of God's promise to Abraham. A deceptive cheat, both to his brother and his father, Isaac. Fearful for his life. Timidly obedient. (Gen. 25:19-28:5)

When he was traveling from his home to his uncle Laban, and he lay down under the stars with his head resting on a stone, he had a dream of a ladder extending from earth to heaven. Some people call it Jacob's ladder. The LORD (translated as his personal name) stood above it and said in the dream (paraphrased) "I am the LORD, the God of your fathers. I will give you and your children the land you lie on, and you will spread everywhere and be a  blessing to the families of the earth. Behold, I'm with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I've done what I've promised."

Jacob responded with a startled awakening. He thought somehow he had missed the presence of the Lord in that place, but he felt it - the dream was so intense. And he was afraid. He memorialized that place in the middle of nowhere thinking "This is where God lives, and this is the gate to heaven", and he made a vow. He simply said, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear...so that I come back again in peace, then the Lord will be my God. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you."

I have to wonder if Jacob knew who he was speaking to; if he had ever contemplated very long the promise God made to Abraham, passed down to Isaac, and conferred to him. After all, he stole what wasn't his birthright. Had he ever thought about God's blessing people through his family? Was it even talked of or said in remembrance? I have to wonder when God says, "I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you." Jacob may not have realized Who met him in his dream. He may have correctly been afraid, if he thought of God as dwelling in some arid, holy place. But God knew what his plan was in "blessing all the families of the earth", even directly through Jacob. The one who didn't deserve his father's blessing. And so God met with him, his heavenly Father.

I identify with Jacob. I identify in the desire to self-protect and take. I admire his pragmatic assertion that he was very alone, with little to call his own, and he was definitely blameworthy. In true honesty he asked the Lord to be with him and keep him, provide bread and clothing, and restore peace in his home. He didn't ask for any more because he didn't deserve any more. But maybe he didn't know to ask for any more because he didn't know to whom he spoke. I think I have that problem sometimes, too. I wonder if Jacob ever thought back when he was older on God's promise not to leave him until He had done what he had promised him.

Why we're here.

I have often puzzled over this verse. Gen. 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." When I've heard people talk of it, it often sounds like guessing and it does lend to imagining, and probably more often then not I've heard people begin to reverse engineer what the 'image of God' must be. That is, because God is Spirit and in Genesis he's creating things from nothing, it is hard to imagine similarity with him. By default we seem to begin thinking of him in terms us and self-understanding. But that isn't right. That's not understanding him. "In our image" is...after us...emulating our character...desiring our relationship...where? on Earth. "Having dominion" and "multiplying".
1 Jn 3:2 says, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." We don't know "what we will be" beyond the grave, but we will know the image of the invisible God when he appears, because we'll be like him. We'll see Jesus as he is. We were made in God's image to see Jesus.

John Calvin, "sacramental living".

The sacraments, therefore, are exercises which make us more certain of the trustworthiness of God's Word. And because we are in the flesh, they are shown under things of flesh to instruct us according to our dull capacity, and lead us by the hand as tutors lead children.

Or as a contemporary Catholic author put it, "I don't partake [of the Eucharist] because I'm a good Catholic, holy and pious and sleek. I partake because I'm a bad Catholic, riddled by doubt and anxiety and anger; fainting from severe hypoglycemia of the soul."


Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Ps. 34:8

"For this reason I bow...

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21

Spurgeon thoughts

In whom do you now trust? Isa. 36:5
Reader, this is an important question. Listen to the Christian's answer, and see if it is yours. "In whom do you now trust?" "I trust," says the Christian, "in a triune God. I trust the Father, believing that He has chosen me from before the foundations of the world; I trust Him to provide for me in providence, to teach me to guide me, to correct me if need be, and to bring me home to His own house where there are many rooms. I trust the Son. He is very God of very God - the man Christ Jesus. I trust in Him to take away all my sins by His own sacrifice and to clothe me with His perfect righteousness. I trust Him to be my Intercessor, to present my prayers and desires before His Father's throne, and I trust Him to be my Advocate at the last great day, to plead my cause, and to justify me. I trust Him for what He is, for what He as done, and for what He has promised still to do. And I trust the Holy Spirit - He has begun to save me from my inbred sins; I trust Him to drive them all out; I trust Him to curb my temper, to subdue my will, to enlighten my understanding, to check my passions, to comfort my despondency, to help my weakness, to illuminate my darkness. I trust Him to dwell in me as my life, to reign in me as my King, to sanctify me completely, spirit, soul, and body, and then to take me up to dwell with the saints in light forever."

What blessed trust - to trust Him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never weaken, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never fail, whose wisdom will never be overruled, and whose perfect goodness can never be impaired! You are happy, reader, if this trust is yours! So trusting, you will enjoy sweet peace now and glory later, and the foundation of your trust will never be removed.

Who's in denial?

11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

We're inseparable from his infinite, good character. We are never NOT in relation to him. How do i know...? He became a man, "God with us." Ask, why? ...to grasp the wide and long and high and deep love of Christ, with the saints! There is something about God's personableness in sending His Son that helps each of us in the silence to see the Father. Jesus says this, "No one has ever seen God.The One and Only Son-the One who is at the Father's side-He has revealed Him." (Jn 1:18 Holman translation) BUT THEN, there is something about God's magnitude...His weight, His glory, that is comprehended being rooted and established with the saints. We need power and each other to even apprehend this love of Christ...and he is coming again. I imagine us standing together beholding this great faithfulness, this rapture, this Person we've always wanted to know. 

The Baffling Call Of God 8/05

“And all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished … And they understood none of these things.”
Luke 18:31,34
God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ's life was an absolute failure from every standpoint but God's. But what seemed failure from man's standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God's, because God's purpose is never man's purpose.
There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what He is after. The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God. God is working out His purposes.
If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say - Now why did God allow this and that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.