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Jacob’s Journey Home

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Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3 ESV

After cheating his brother and deceiving his father, Jacob had run away and spent twenty years living in Padan-Aram. Then in today’s verse, God appears to Jacob in a dream and tells him that it is time to go home. On the way, Jacob wrestled with an angel, had his name changed, and then came face to face with the brother he had cheated. But Jacob was shocked to discover that instead of revenge, Esau was ready to be reconciled with him. But Jacob still didn’t know where he belonged. He settled down for a little while and even bought some land and built an altar just outside of Canaan, but God’s plan still seemed uncertain. Now, we may have never wrestled an angel or been through the same misadventures as Jacob, but we all have had our challenges, failures, and postponed dreams. Maybe, like Jacob, we have run from our problems, and God is still wrestling with us as He works to change our hearts. Though that that wrestling leaves most of us with a permanent limp, God also leaves us with a blessing. Are you a returned prodigal still unsure of where you belong? Don’t be discouraged, God isn’t done with you yet! A few chapters later, God appeared to Jacob a second time and gave him a specific destination: a place called Bethel, which translated means the house of God. Just as Jesus told us, He has gone to prepare a place for us in Heaven, God also has a place for us here on earth. He calls each of us to our Bethel, where we can worship and serve in peace, because our hearts have come home to Him!

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Making New Connections

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Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” 1 Corinthians 12:20-21

One of the greatest challenges that many people face today is isolation. We as a society find ourselves separated by age, wealth, education and race. Sadly, this kind of segmentation is common even in the church. Our church announcements end up sounding something like this,

“The eyebrows will be meeting in room 112b on Wednesday nights, the feet are having a luncheon at noon on Saturday, and a short-term mission trip for the toes and fingers will be leaving next Sunday afternoon.”

This sort of dissection of the body of Christ seems completely natural to us because that is what we have experienced everywhere else all our lives. And though some of these specialized get-togethers are sometimes helpful, the dangers of isolation and segmentation are nowhere more pronounced than among the elderly who often find themselves in long-term care. And even in long-term care facilities the specialization that drives further isolation has been accelerating over the last ten or fifteen years. For example, those with memory issues are locked in their own ward, others no longer able to walk are placed in a separate wing, and the list goes on. Worst of all is that these people are not only isolated, but they are also usually soon forgotten by family, friends and neighbors, and even by the church. The parts of the body of Christ that God had designed to be connected to them don’t miss them because they are busy meeting with the other toes and fingers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today God is calling the church to do more than hold worship conferences, youth rallies and women’s conventions. God’s heart is to go out into the highways and byways, which includes the long-term care facilities in our community. For those who sense God’s calling, I am making a short book called, “New Frontiers in Nursing Home Ministry,” available for free in its Kindle format all this week.

And in Every House!

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And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Acts 2:46 KJV

"And daily in the temple...and in every house
And in every house
And in every house
And daily in the temple...and in every house
They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ!"

Last week one of our elderly ushers had a fall and passed away not many days afterward. He and his wife Joyce have been members of our church for decades, and every Sunday as we made our way down the aisle, Hal would shake hands with us and anyone who was not too busy to pause for a moment. Though I remembered their names, I really did not know them and was amazed at how few of our friends even remembered them at all. Yet, week after week they stood out in the aisle, greeting folks and ushering late comers into open seats. Do we have a bad church? Well, yes and no. Though the preaching is quite biblically sound, we are far from a perfect church, because people like Joyce and Hal can slip through the cracks all the time. That is why our leadership emphasizes small groups. In China, they call them, “House churches”, while here in the U.S. they go by names like small groups, grow groups, life groups and many others. By early church standards, the leaders of these small meetings are pastors and the person we call our senior pastor would be the bishop. Today I wanted, not to focus on church structure, but on how we all need connection. Without connections, we are just hermits meeting together once a week, then returning to the comfort of our modern caves. We plunk away at our cell phones, laptops and iPads, but rarely have opportunities to love and be known as a part of God’s family. This week in our men’s study we finished Colossians and noted that before Paul closed, He greeted a long list of people by name. They all mattered to him and more importantly to God. One verse the stands out to me this morning is:

 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. Colossians 4:15 NIV

Does the church meet in your house, or do we meet in someone else’s place? Without a doubt, our brother Hal is now shaking hands with Jesus and though Joyce is left alone, she knows that one day they will be reunited. We all know this, but only people close enough to them to really know them will be there to comfort, encourage and listen. Being in such fellowship makes us uncomfortable, gives us responsibilities we may not want to have and opens us up to being hurt by others. These are all valid reasons to be careful of who and where we fellowship, but none of those is valid enough to keep us isolated from the life and the love of the body of Christ. Find people you can commit to, serve with and break bread with in your community, so you can have that gladness and singleness of heart that God intends for all of His children!