My
Space: A Sanctuary
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
One of the underlying goals of space
research is the search for life beyond ourselves.
When any of the building blocks of life, primarily water, carbon and nitrogen are found there is considerable excitement. The same is true for new suns with planets orbiting them. The thought is the same...maybe there is someone else out there.
One of the places we visited in New Mexico last month was the city of Roswell. For those of you who do not know, Roswell is ground zero of UFOlogy. In the late 1940's a farmer reported a space ship crashed on his property. Later the US air force said it was just a weather balloon; but since then, Mulder and Scully and millions of others have been looking for the truth...that is out there!
History is full of sacred shrines where people have reported divine experiences such as Lourdes in France. In fact we also visited a little church in rural New Mexico that is called the Lourdes of New Mexico. You can go into a small room with a dirt floor and scoop up some of the dirt that apparently has healing powers. For various reasons people have considered certain places to be holy and come to worship and seek guidance and healing. Bethel of Genesis is one of those.
The story in Genesis 28 describes the background to the town of Bethel which was considered sacred through the history of Israel, second only to the temple in Jerusalem where God was believed to actually live.
The story of Bethel begins with Jacob.
He has taken Esau's birthright for a pot of lentil stew.
Then in a second act of trickery his mother fooled her husband Isaac by dressing Jacob up in sheepskin to resemble Esau, the firstborn. They steal Esau's birthright and Jacob's blessing.
The Bible says Esau takes comfort contemplating killing Jacob.
Jacob's mother comes and says, Esau is deriving a lot of pleasure imagining your death. It's time you left for Haran. I will let you know when Esau calms down and its safe to return home.
Rebecca goes to Isaac and says, "I just hate all the foreign women Esau gets mixed up with and if Jacob marries a Hittite too, I will might as well kill myself!"
So Isaac calls Jacob and says, "your mother doesn't want you marrying a local girl, so you better go see my family back in Haran, and see if you can marry one of them. Your uncle Laban will help you."
The deception works and Jacob heads out for Haran. Finding a wife is secondary to putting distance between him and Esau.
Jacob is traveling alone and enroute stops in a deserted place. He makes camp and takes a stone for a pillow...its that primitive.
While he sleeps he has a vision of a ladder to heaven and sees angels ascending and descending on it. They are heavenly messengers from God and this is a place where heaven and earth meet. God Himself is standing at the head of the stairway and says to Jacob, "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac. I will look after you wherever you go and will bring you back again to this land and make you and your family great. I will bless the whole earth through them."
Jacob wakes up and says, "this is a holy place. God is in it and I had no idea." He sets up a cairn and the place later became known as Bethel which literally means "house of God". Israel considered that place a sacred shine throughout its history.
Israel had a few holy places where people would go to seek a word from God or just to worship. The temple was the primary site, but there were other places, such as Horeb or Sinai where God had appeared in the past.
Eventually, in its history, God put an end to associating a particular location with His presence.
When the temple was destroyed and they were exiled from the land of Israel, it was a huge adjustment in learning that God is not the God of a physical geographic location. God is the God of the whole earth.
David writes before the exile, "though I walk through the valley of death, you are there..."
Centuries after Jacob's time, actually standing near a well known as Jacob's well, Jesus has a conversation with a woman about where is the best place to worship God, and Jesus says, "those who worship God will do so in spirit and in truth."
In other words, God is anywhere and everywhere, but is accessible not by a formula or a locale, but by coming to Him in the right spirit: in humility, openness and honesty.
Jacob said, "God was in this place and I didn't know it."
How often that is our experience as well.
God was with us and we didn't know it.
That time you sat in a hospital room beside the bed of a loved one, God was there.
At work when you felt you just couldn't do it one more day, God was there.
When you got your medical test results and felt the bottom of your world fall out, God was there.
When month after month went by and life seemed just to go from bad to worse, God was there.
When you pledged your love to that special person, God was there too.
And when you held your child for the first time, God was there.
When you prayed that day when life felt unbearable, God was there.
And today, however life finds you, in this place at this time, God is here.
And God will be with you when you leave this place.
Jacob was right, "God is in this place, and we hardly are ever aware of Him."
We know it intellectually; and when we are pushed to the wall, we remember it, but in the day to day moments of our life, we are at the place where heaven meets earth.
It has nothing to do with geography or architecture.
It has everything to do with God's promise.
God made a promise to Jacob. "I will be with you."
Jesus made the same promise to us, "I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you."
As you go throughout your life, maybe you will remember from time to time that you are the bringer of heaven to earth.
Does that sound presumptuous?
Sure, its God who brings heaven to earth, but so do you.
You bear the image of God in your body and you bear the spirit of God as well.
You are the temple of God.
You bring heaven to earth for some people.
When you feel pressed and alone, remember you are in a holy place but just don't know it.
When you are tempted to think that who you are or what you do doesn't matter, remember, you are the bearer of God's image and God's presence. You are a doorway between worlds because the living God is with you.
Live well and be joyful, Christ is your constant companion, the one who is the Way the Truth and the Life.
Go into the world and remember, God is in this place.
When any of the building blocks of life, primarily water, carbon and nitrogen are found there is considerable excitement. The same is true for new suns with planets orbiting them. The thought is the same...maybe there is someone else out there.
One of the places we visited in New Mexico last month was the city of Roswell. For those of you who do not know, Roswell is ground zero of UFOlogy. In the late 1940's a farmer reported a space ship crashed on his property. Later the US air force said it was just a weather balloon; but since then, Mulder and Scully and millions of others have been looking for the truth...that is out there!
History is full of sacred shrines where people have reported divine experiences such as Lourdes in France. In fact we also visited a little church in rural New Mexico that is called the Lourdes of New Mexico. You can go into a small room with a dirt floor and scoop up some of the dirt that apparently has healing powers. For various reasons people have considered certain places to be holy and come to worship and seek guidance and healing. Bethel of Genesis is one of those.
The story in Genesis 28 describes the background to the town of Bethel which was considered sacred through the history of Israel, second only to the temple in Jerusalem where God was believed to actually live.
The story of Bethel begins with Jacob.
He has taken Esau's birthright for a pot of lentil stew.
Then in a second act of trickery his mother fooled her husband Isaac by dressing Jacob up in sheepskin to resemble Esau, the firstborn. They steal Esau's birthright and Jacob's blessing.
The Bible says Esau takes comfort contemplating killing Jacob.
Jacob's mother comes and says, Esau is deriving a lot of pleasure imagining your death. It's time you left for Haran. I will let you know when Esau calms down and its safe to return home.
Rebecca goes to Isaac and says, "I just hate all the foreign women Esau gets mixed up with and if Jacob marries a Hittite too, I will might as well kill myself!"
So Isaac calls Jacob and says, "your mother doesn't want you marrying a local girl, so you better go see my family back in Haran, and see if you can marry one of them. Your uncle Laban will help you."
The deception works and Jacob heads out for Haran. Finding a wife is secondary to putting distance between him and Esau.
Jacob is traveling alone and enroute stops in a deserted place. He makes camp and takes a stone for a pillow...its that primitive.
While he sleeps he has a vision of a ladder to heaven and sees angels ascending and descending on it. They are heavenly messengers from God and this is a place where heaven and earth meet. God Himself is standing at the head of the stairway and says to Jacob, "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac. I will look after you wherever you go and will bring you back again to this land and make you and your family great. I will bless the whole earth through them."
Jacob wakes up and says, "this is a holy place. God is in it and I had no idea." He sets up a cairn and the place later became known as Bethel which literally means "house of God". Israel considered that place a sacred shine throughout its history.
Israel had a few holy places where people would go to seek a word from God or just to worship. The temple was the primary site, but there were other places, such as Horeb or Sinai where God had appeared in the past.
Eventually, in its history, God put an end to associating a particular location with His presence.
When the temple was destroyed and they were exiled from the land of Israel, it was a huge adjustment in learning that God is not the God of a physical geographic location. God is the God of the whole earth.
David writes before the exile, "though I walk through the valley of death, you are there..."
Centuries after Jacob's time, actually standing near a well known as Jacob's well, Jesus has a conversation with a woman about where is the best place to worship God, and Jesus says, "those who worship God will do so in spirit and in truth."
In other words, God is anywhere and everywhere, but is accessible not by a formula or a locale, but by coming to Him in the right spirit: in humility, openness and honesty.
Jacob said, "God was in this place and I didn't know it."
How often that is our experience as well.
God was with us and we didn't know it.
That time you sat in a hospital room beside the bed of a loved one, God was there.
At work when you felt you just couldn't do it one more day, God was there.
When you got your medical test results and felt the bottom of your world fall out, God was there.
When month after month went by and life seemed just to go from bad to worse, God was there.
When you pledged your love to that special person, God was there too.
And when you held your child for the first time, God was there.
When you prayed that day when life felt unbearable, God was there.
And today, however life finds you, in this place at this time, God is here.
And God will be with you when you leave this place.
Jacob was right, "God is in this place, and we hardly are ever aware of Him."
We know it intellectually; and when we are pushed to the wall, we remember it, but in the day to day moments of our life, we are at the place where heaven meets earth.
It has nothing to do with geography or architecture.
It has everything to do with God's promise.
God made a promise to Jacob. "I will be with you."
Jesus made the same promise to us, "I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you."
As you go throughout your life, maybe you will remember from time to time that you are the bringer of heaven to earth.
Does that sound presumptuous?
Sure, its God who brings heaven to earth, but so do you.
You bear the image of God in your body and you bear the spirit of God as well.
You are the temple of God.
You bring heaven to earth for some people.
When you feel pressed and alone, remember you are in a holy place but just don't know it.
When you are tempted to think that who you are or what you do doesn't matter, remember, you are the bearer of God's image and God's presence. You are a doorway between worlds because the living God is with you.
Live well and be joyful, Christ is your constant companion, the one who is the Way the Truth and the Life.
Go into the world and remember, God is in this place.