Saturday, March 11, 2017

Stairway to Heaven - Part 1


Genesis 28:10-16 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
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This last Sunday, our CEO of our denomination Willie Nolte continued our Sermon series based upon the book of Genesis. Willie told of how "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album (often called Led Zeppelin IV). It is often referred to as one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Plant's own explanation of the lyrics was that it "was some cynical aside about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration. In a humanistic-thinking materialistic world, the perception is that we can buy what we want. Self-seeking secular-minded Thinkers figure out a way to get what they want, when they want. Finagling God’s Word (the Creator standard of living) to egocentric ambitions reflects the way that humanity acts and reacts. As Led Zeppelin’s classic song’s message: As a result of selfish Godless existential living for the physical (even thinking and believing that you can buy Heaven itself), society is fractured and broken.  We see this in the Genesis Bible record of Jacob (the heel-catcher), who led an early life as a deceiver and manipulator. Though, the Grandson on Patriarch Father Abraham (Friend of God and Father of Nations) and Son of Isaac (he will laugh) – the Son of God’s Promise, Jacob knew of Father God – the Creator, but he did not know God …until he met Him one night, in a place Jacob named Bethel (the gate to heaven/the house of God), in a dream about a stairway to heaven. A major new thought come to his realization of life and living ... God is here! He changes and goes on to become named the third patriarch of Israel by God.


41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father ...

Deuteronomy 31:8 “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Let's continue Willie's message on Heaven in the next Post.
In Christ, Brian


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