MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” GEN.28:16
I love getting outside. Finding outside places wherever I find myself becomes an adventure. Staying indoors, curtains closed, tv on, never knowing what the weather is or season makes one crazy and then eating bad to boot is just toxic! And we wonder why we are depressed! Christ comes to redeem the whole man and He went through so much trouble to create so many intricate things. I believe it will take a lifetime finding them all out! Christ wants to show off His creation to you and to me. Go out there in the big world and see for yourself!
Piper said in his book, THE PLEASURES OF GOD, “Being infinite, He is inexhaustibly interesting. And it gets very practical. Seeing and savoring the glory of God like this changes us profoundly. And when we are changed like this, all our attitudes and actions are affected”. Here’s the way the New Testament says it: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another”.
When I combine the Word of God to creation He reveals Himself even more. You may ask yourself, where is He to be found and known? He tells us: “The LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD” (1 Samuel 3:21, ESV). God reveals himself by His Word. If we want Him, we go through His Word. Do you know you are transformed when you read His word and then when you glorify Him through creation well thats the cherry on top! How many times have you been overtaken by God while reading His word or out in creation (or in worship) and you realize Oh my goodness “God is in this place and I didn’t know!” For the divine promise is the best commentary to see God. A million Jacob ladders opens up to us when we learn to leave the gaze of earth and its woes to become fixated on another world. “The seen is but a thin veil to the unseen” says, McClaren, “Here is the secret of elevation of aim and thought above the mean things of sense. Earth, which we are too apt to make a workshop, or a mere garden of pleasure, is a Bethel,-a house of God. Everywhere the ladder stands; everywhere the angels go up and down; everywhere the Face looks from the top. Nothing will save life from becoming, sooner or later, trivial, monotonous, and infinitely wearisome, but the continual vision of the present God, and the continual experience of the swift ascent and descent of our aspirations and His blessings.”
Find your Jacob’s Ladder; it’s all around you!