Missing Jesus

  Genesis 32:  — 1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob  saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.   —   7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into [...]

Not Yet Promises

Genesis 31  — 3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” — 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent [...]

It is Completed

Our lives have consequence. They have meaning. They have meaning that is for us, just like Leah’s children had meaning for her. She longed for acceptance from her husband. She desired to be loved. Rachel’s children had meaning for her life. They were validation for her, on her claim on Jacob.
But while they served purposes for Leah and for Rachel, they were also serving a role in God’s plan too.

What a Weird Way: Rachel and Leah

I wonder how I might be missing God’s blessed life by looking for strength, and beauty? I wonder if God is acting right now in my life, in some place that seems undesirable, unattractive, or unprofitable for me? Better yet, I wonder if I want something that looks, smells, seems perfect for me- and yet my better life goes on a different path?

Just Lay Down

He lays his head down in an unfamiliar place, and God reveals himself. Jacob awakens, and realizes that though the place is unfamiliar, unremarkable, and otherwise appears desolate, God is already here.

The Company He Keeps

I don’t see a moral here. I don’t see a lesson to be learned really. Nothing that I can apply to my life in order to be a better, happier, more productive person. If anything, I see scheming, distrustful, and manipulative personalities working overtime here.

But I see something else- God said Jacob would be the greater. Circumstances were stacked against it, but it happened. It was impossible, but it happened. So I can see that even when God appears to be making impossible promises, promises that my every experience with our reality denies feasibility to, they still happen.

100 Times Over For His Cause

Genesis 26 — 1 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in [...]

My Kind

His dreams for you are greater, wider, longer, and better than your dreams for your life. Don’t allow a patchy past to let you think He is not interested in you or your “type.” He’s interested in exactly our type. That’s the only kind he really knows!

Looking for the Right Thing

What’s the point of prayer? If we can affect God’s will, is He really sovereign and reliable?
Prayer is a way to align ourselves to the way God desires His creation to operate.

Isolation? Or Immersion? Mixing it up.

Abraham may have been a lot of things; a truth-bender, a traveler, a warrior, a corporate CEO, a prophet, but though he may have had an unshared faith, he certainly did not have an unshared life. Tells me something; God never told him to hide in the shadow, remain above this, avoid those things, or those people. Abraham must have known that God likes friends. God likes a party.