Your first and highest calling

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."(1 Corinthians 1:9)
Do you know what God wants you to do more than anything else today? He wants you to fellowship with Him. He wants you to walk with Him and talk with Him. To discuss the things of life with Him. He wants you to draw near to Him and partake of His very nature.
So many of us get so caught up in striving to please God in the things we do that we forget our first and highest calling is just to be in fellowship with Him.
That's right. God longs for us just to want to be with Him.
Have you ever considered how much it would mean for you to just come to God and say, "Father, I didn't really come today to get anything. I've prayed about my needs already and Your Word says they're met according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So I just came to be with You. If You have anything You'd like to tell me, I'm ready to listen...and I want you to know that whatever I see in Your Word, I'll do it. I'll put it into effect in my life."

Love Never Fails

"Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails--never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end."(1 Corinthians 13:7-8)
Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it. When you live by love, you cannot fail.
It takes faith to believe that love's way will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man and his world are ruled by selfishness.
But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. As long as you stay in love, God the Father seeks your own. He sees to it that you succeed. Walking in love is to your great advantage!
Agape love is a new kind of power. It makes you master of every situation. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. No one even has the power to hurt your feelings because you are not ruled by feelings but by God's love. You are loving as He loves.
This love is revolutionary. If we fully understood the great return from living God's love, we'd probably be competing with each other, each of us trying to love the other more. And without a doubt, everyone would emerge from that competition a winner! For love is truly the only sure secret to our success.

Jacob's Escape to Haran

Jacob's exile brought about the marriage of the covenant heir with women of God's people. At this time Jacob was at least 57 years old and still a bachelor. Unlike Abraham, Issac had taken no steps to find God-fearing wives for his sons, and Esau married two Hittite women. Now Rebekah hearing of Esau's plan to kill Jacob, thinks of a way to achieve two important objectives. They could send Jacob to Mesoptamia to look for God-fearing wife where he would be safe with her brother Laban. Rebekah talks to Issac about how unbearable life would be for her if Jacob married a Hittite woman, like Esau's wives. Issac agrees and sends Jacob to Mesoptamia to find a believing wife.

Before Jacob left, Issac committed him to God's care giving him the full Abrahmic blessing. This was meant to equip Jacob for spiritual leadership as well as to assure him of material blessings.

Jacob was on his way to Haran to a completely new chapter in his life. Jacob 's journey was not an easy one. The long journey to Haran about 750 km on foot and travelling alone was a new experience for him. He must have been lonely, conscience striken and uncertain of the future. He needs assurance from the Lord about the convenant.

On the second or third night of Jacob's journey, God gave him a dream to encourage him. It would strengthen his faith and help him all through the long, difficult years ahead away from the promised land.

In his dream Jacob saw a majestic stairway that reached from earth to heaven on which the angels of God were ascending and descending. The stairway reaching into heaven and the Lord was right there. It speaks of communication, Jesus is the way, the only true way from earth to heaven, the mediator between God and man. Through Christ we have the heavens opened to us.

When Jacob awoke, he was afraid and awed by God's presence. Jacob is no longer a fugitive from the results of his own sin, he is now a partner with God in fulfilment of a Divince purpose.

In gratitude and reverence, Jacob erected a pillar and vowed that Johovah woule be his God, the site of the vision would be a sacred place and he would give back to God a tithe of all that God gave him.