Jacob Awoke From His Sleep

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it…. This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’”(Genesis 28:16,17, NIV). “When Jacob awoke from his sleep…”

There is more than one form of sleep. I sleep when a valuable friendship disintegrates, I sleep while a brother or sister in Christ battles sickness, I sleep while my next door neighbor fights for his marriage, I sleep when Jesus prompts me to pray, I sleep while my missionary friends are overcome with loneliness. I sleep too often. And if you are anything like me, when I sleep, I become spiritually draggy.  This can go on for weeks, even months.  But our loving God will not allow me to stay in this place: “He awakens me from my sleep.” I am struck by the phrase…”and I was not aware of it.” How often am I not aware that the Lord in “this place.” He is here, with me. Better yet, He is in me.  When I sleep, He is in me; when I weed my garden, He is in me; when I shop at the Farmer’s Market, He is in me. Not with me, in me; not beside me, in me. It has taken me some forty years to discover this.


Darrel Johnson writes : “Through the coming of Jesus Christ and through the coming of the Holy Spirit, God “draws near to us in such a way as to draw us near to himself with the circle of his knowing of himself.”1 Amazing! No sentence outside the Scriptures has gripped my mind and heart the way this one has. “God draws near to us.” That is wonderful enough, is it not? That the living God would draw near to me is enough to rejoice in the rest of life. But that’s not all. “God draws near to us in such a way as to draw us near to himself.” Again, that too is wonderful enough—is it not?—that the living God would come and pull me to himself. But there is more: “God draws near to us in such a way as to draw us near to himself within the circle of his knowing of himself.” Within the circle—can you think of anything more wonderful than that? The living God, who speaks of himself as us, draws near to us in such a way as to draw us near to the us within the circle of the us. That is why we were created. That is why we were redeemed. That is what it means to be saved, to be born again. It is the blessing signified in our baptism. Being immersed into water in the Trinitarian Name (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) points to our being immersed into, plunged into, the three-fold-ness of God, to participate in the Name, to participate in the inner life of the Trinity.

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