Brown's Daily Word 10-7-09

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord that He is upon the Throne. He reigns, He rules, and He is in control. It is a wonderful blessing to know the living God in and through Jesus Christ the Son, who has revealed the Father. It has been wisely said that religion is man's search for God, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Lord's search for man. Jesus said, "I have come to seek and to save the lost". He came as the Good Shepherd looking for the lost sheep. He is still looking for the prodigal sons and daughters and lost sheep.
Some time ago I read an article about Frank Warren, editor of the book, "The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A Post Secret Book". After a troubling period in his own life, he handed out 3000 self-addressed stamped postcards to people on the street, asking them to anonymously mail him their secrets. It began as a sort of public art project in 2004. To his surprise, the cards started pouring in. He doesn’t have to hand out cards anymore. He has received over 100,000 cards, many of which are works of art in themselves. One postcard had an old picture of a Santa Claus with two boys on his lap. On the picture were written the words, “I wish my sons would contact me.” Another that I was particularly drawn to was one where a man had taken a picture of hands praying, and written on the picture: “I don’t know how to go back to God, and I want to more than anything else in the world.” Both cards were about finding your way back home. One was as a father who missed his sons, and the other from a lost son who could not find the way back to his heavenly Father. It is the original sin, our rebellion against the Lord who has created us and has redeemed us ,that creates a gulf between us and the Lord. If we could have interviewed the prodigal son in Jesus’ story,( Luke 15) he might have told us that he did not like all the rules at home. He may have said that he did not like having to answer to his father for everything. He needed to get away from home and have a change of scenery. Perhaps he just wanted to sow his wild oats. Another young man by the name of Jacob, in the Book of Genesis, ran away from home. Jacob had created his own problems through deceit and self-centeredness, and these caused many destructive things in his life. We see a lot of people today who would rather continue in their dysfunctional lifestyles than to turn their lives over to God. They would like God to help them with some of their problems, but they have no intention of surrendering their lives to God. They are caught up in a web of self-destruction, but would rather live with the results of their destructive choices than give up "control" of their lives.What makes it so difficult for us to find our way back home? We don’t know the way.
Jacob was a man who needed to find his way to God, but he did not seem to know how. His father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham both had life-altering encounters with God, but nothing has happened to Jacob up to this point. He had heard all the stories of his father and grandfather, but to him they were only stories. Life had been pretty good for Jacob. He had grown up to be a shepherd and he lived a serene existence. Jacob had never really needed God. We never read about any conversations that Jacob entered about God or with him. We never read about him worshiping, nor do we read of any encounters with God in all of his life up until he met God at Bethel. Yet, Jacob came to the place where he desperately needed God. After he swindled his brother out of his birthright and inheritance the conflict between him and his brother escalated to the place where he was in fear of losing his life. He needed to "go home to God", but he did not know the way. The good news is that, when we cannot find our way to God, God will come to us. It is called the Prevenient grace. Jacob ran from his brother and his problems — problems of his own creation. Finally, the night came and he fell asleep. A rock pillowed his head, and above his head were the open heavens. While Jacob slept, God revealed himself to Jacob. In his dream there was what appeared to be a large ladder, or staircase of light, the top of which reached heaven and the very throne of God. God revealed himself to Jacob, promising that Jacob would inherit the promises which God had made to his father and his father before him. The Lord repeated those promises to him personally saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth... All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13-15). Jacob called the place “Bethel,” which in Hebrew means ‘House of God’, because this place seemed to him to be the very dwelling place of the Lord. Jacob met God. He wasn’t expecting to meet him. He wasn’t even thinking of God. It was purely grace. His only thought was to get away from his brother. His mind was full of thoughts about where he was going and what was ahead of him. In spite of this, God broke into Jacob’s self-absorbed world in a dramatic way. God opened his own world to Jacob, even though Jacob had closed his world to God. This whole incident tells us something very important about God. Isaiah, the prophet, quoted God as saying, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I’” (Isaiah 65:1). God is full of surprises. Just when you do not expect to meet him, he comes to you. God can interrupt our self-centered lives in the most amazing ways, even if we are not wanting to hear from him. God is interested in us. He has a prior claim on us. He is looking for us so that he can come into our lives and lead us home. We may be running like Jacob. We may run from family, from problems, or from God. Our lives may be in upheaval. There may be broken relationships as there were with Jacob. We may be heading into an uncertain future. God can meet us in any of these circumstances. We never know when he is going to show up. Any day could contain a most unusual visit from God. There extends a stairway from the heart of God to our hearts right now. Let us say with Jacob: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it... How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16,17).
In Christ the Saviour,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTLGWYskQlc