WOW - reading Genesis 28 is amazing. This is where Jacob has a whacked out dream about angels, God and a stairway. He dream of a stairway from the earth reaching the heavens and angels riding up and down this 4,000 year old escalator. But the story doesn't end there. It tell us of God (The LORD) coming down and standing beside Jacob. (Some translations say "above it" or "over him" but "beside him" is better given the context and Hebrew).
So what? So God came down for a visit. Well this tells us several things:
1) God left HIS 'culture' to come to man. He came and communicated to Jacob in his language and on his turf so He (God) could be understood. Sounds missional to me!
2) He comes to us, we don't go to Him. That is the Gospel, God coming to us and doing for us what we can't do for ourselves.
3) He tells us His plans for us. Not always the details or the hows, but the BIG plans and the ones we are to focus upon...All the peoples of the world will be blessed (that missional thing again) and He uses you and me to accomplish that!
4) He will provide rest and comfort (wonder who that rock was? wonder who that bread alluded to in this text?)
Yet most importantly He will provide the means for this to be accomplished. You see God didn't come down on any stairway...He came down on THE Stairway - Jesus.
Let's turn over to John 1:51. Jesus is talking and says: "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.(Italics added). Imagine that! The very same words from Genesis 28 are Jesus' words. He is the 'stairway'. He is the One by which God comes to man (well He is God) and God the Father has a relationship with His people.
Jacob encountered God via Jesus and called Him a staircase.
The Bridge - where I pastor
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
What are the "Men of Genesis" teaching me?
As I spend time studying and preparing for each sermon in the series "The Men of Genesis" I come to the same conclusion...what an amazing God that He would use sinful men to do amazing things. Each man, in spite of his sin, trusts God to fulfill His purposes through them. Each man also reveals the One on whom we should all trust...the only one who perfectly obeyed His Father, is our "ark", the only Son sacrificed for sin, the perfect One who leads His people from slavery to freedom, who defeats our giants when we didn't do anything to deserve it or we didn't help in any fashion, yet we get the freedom. He is the one who, in spite of our sin and our something else being first in our hearts and rightfully being called "spiritual prostitutes" loves and received unconditionally.
Remember what God teaches us:
- He told Noah to go and build a boat when rain did not fall – it rained and man was saved!
- He told Abraham to ‘go’ and He did not tell him where – The nation was built!
- He told Abraham he would have a child at the age of 100 and when his wife was barren - they had a son!
- He told Abraham to kill that one son he so desperately waited to have - God rescued him!
- He told Moses to speak to the Pharaoh to let His people go and to preach to the masses…all from a man who stuttered - He led his people to freedom in spite of their sin!
- He told Gideon to lead his shrunken army with men who drink like dogs - They won!
- He told the army surrounding Jericho to defeat the city by yelling - It fell!
- He told a young teen to go kill a giant whom all feared with a stick, rubber band and a pebble - He killed the giant and set his people free!
- He told Hosea to tell the people of Israel that they were prostitutes - They repented and God forgave!
- He told Malachi to tell the people of Israel that they were stealing from God - They gave and through us we can bless others!
The point? God calls men to do ridiculous things because HE is faithful. Otherwise man would take the credit because they were doable in man’s eyes.
He does all these things through Jesus Christ who is the One who killed the giant, the One who is our Ark, the One who calls us to repent, the One who defeats the enemy with His voice...it is all Jesus. He does this all through us.
Remember what God teaches us:
- He told Noah to go and build a boat when rain did not fall – it rained and man was saved!
- He told Abraham to ‘go’ and He did not tell him where – The nation was built!
- He told Abraham he would have a child at the age of 100 and when his wife was barren - they had a son!
- He told Abraham to kill that one son he so desperately waited to have - God rescued him!
- He told Moses to speak to the Pharaoh to let His people go and to preach to the masses…all from a man who stuttered - He led his people to freedom in spite of their sin!
- He told Gideon to lead his shrunken army with men who drink like dogs - They won!
- He told the army surrounding Jericho to defeat the city by yelling - It fell!
- He told a young teen to go kill a giant whom all feared with a stick, rubber band and a pebble - He killed the giant and set his people free!
- He told Hosea to tell the people of Israel that they were prostitutes - They repented and God forgave!
- He told Malachi to tell the people of Israel that they were stealing from God - They gave and through us we can bless others!
The point? God calls men to do ridiculous things because HE is faithful. Otherwise man would take the credit because they were doable in man’s eyes.
He does all these things through Jesus Christ who is the One who killed the giant, the One who is our Ark, the One who calls us to repent, the One who defeats the enemy with His voice...it is all Jesus. He does this all through us.
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