In The Garden
"Finding My Bethel"
Part 2
Pastor Wayne Clabaugh

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Scripture Texts: "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: "
Genesis 28:20 (KJV)

So just what is all of this stuff about finding my Bethel anyway?

Well let's begin by looking at it from a more secular standpoint at first.

Couples for instance will after 10 years of marriage, or 25 years of marriage or even 40, 50 years of marriage try to return to that "special place" where they stole their first loving glance and maybe shared their first kiss or embrace. Professional sportsmen often go back to their Old High School or visited some of the old stomping grounds in the neighborhood where they used to "tough it out" playing football on pavement, or baseball in the middle of an open field some not so affectionately called "the landfill". All to capture that essence of where they've been and the pinnacle now, to which they have risen.

Businessmen are often sent to retreats and on fishing trips just to regain that inner self that may have been lost in the trenches of the big city: all of these are part and parcel of a "spiritual experience" having nothing to do with religion, necessarily, to bring one back to a focus point where they can become "centered" and not just regain that drive they once had... but to forge ahead with a "cleansing" so to speak, that where they have been and what they have been doing has "counted" for something!

The stark contrast of that is the many forgotten prisoners who are even now incarcerated for life's "youthful" decisions, now in their 30's and 40's maybe even their 50's and the prospects of their encountering any hope of finding "their Bethel", is all but lost, or so it seems. Let me just speak to you right now, my dear brother and sister who are incarcerated... who feel their is no hope, no place to return to, no life here on this earth where you can find peace or solace or any kind of "Bethel" in your life. Maybe reading this devotional email is a place you can start.

You see, Jacob was running from his brother Esau at the time of this encounter with the Lord. At his mother's behest, Jacob had stolen his brother's birthright, and his brother Esau would have surely killed him if he found him. Yet, there at that place of his Bethel, he not only sought a place of solace, (which was the reason for his dream found there in Genesis 28:12-19), but friend, in his darkest hour, when he had bestowed upon him the awesome blessings of his father... he was in the pit of despair! I think we've all known that time in our lives when it seemed we were like a prisoner and there was simply no way out of our dilemma in life.. and then Jesus came!

Oh we didn't want to talk about Jesus and religion and all of that "feel-good" stuff, but that's just what we needed! Our hearts and minds, our very spirit was like a gaping wound, oozing with the infection of hatred and regret, and loneliness, and bitterness...oh how we longed for some kind of healing balm to be applied to our situation and yet, until now... until Jesus came we had found no such place.

Oh... could it be possible that we could just reach out and accept Him? Could it be possible that in the anguish and misery of this life that we could maybe, for the first time in our lives, find peace? Oh Jesus, come into my life and save me. Fill my empty spirit with Your peace and Your healing so that while it may look as though my circumstance on the outside have not changed... inside, I am set FREE!!!

Friend, I just today stared at the face of a 30 year old man who is imprisoned in just such a way. His heart and his spirit is broken. He has had money, yet it was never enough, he always wanted more. He's had the love of family, yet that was never enough, and he always seemed to somehow mess that up. He has all of the talent and charisma of a business titan who could face a day on the Wall Street of his forever and BE A VICTOR ... yet this young man's face was drawn. He had wrinkles in his brow and eyelids that had become shutters for anything good in his life. His eyes were dark and drawn, his face needed some kind of breakthrough; some kind of hope; some kind of a Bethel.

I just want to stop here for today and remind YOU that God has a perfect plan for YOU today. It doesn't matter what you've done, how old you are, how hopeless you think your situation is... HE HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!

Just as Jacob having sinned against his father and his brother, and had gone against everything that was sacred (in what the people of that day held sacred) - such as receiving the blessing of the father... there was hope for Jacob... and there is hope for you today!

While Jacob had been anointed with earthly blessing beyond his imagination by his earthly father... his HEAVENLY FATHER would call this young "sup planter of a birthright" the FATHER OF THE NATION ISRAEL! And you say you have no hope?

What Jacob experienced in Genesis 28 as his Bethel - coming to a place "where God was" (a place that was soon to be where the House of God would be built), he was catapulted to a his Peniel in Genesis 32:30 we read the words...

"And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. "

READ IT AGAIN!!! Not spared, not challenged not enlightened or set at ease... PRESERVED!

That word means that he had found RESTORATION AND HEALING! HE HAD FOUND JOY AND PEACE FOR HE NOW HAD THE BLESSING OF KNOWING NOT JUST THE PLACE OF GOD, BUT HE NOW KNEW THE MIND OF GOD,
FOR HE HAS SEEN HIS FACE!

Oh friend, I don't know what you're wrestling with here this morning. I don't know if there is anyway that you can possibly break free from your circumstance although I have seen God miraculously turn things around in many a life! One thing I do know...until you find that place in your heart where you make that decision as Jacob  did there in our text for today to say,

"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: " Gen 28:20 (KJV)

... you will not find any peace... any rest... any joy... any hope.

Let this be your Bethel today will you? Can you put aside everything that you may find distasteful about religion, and just allow Jesus to come into your heart? You see, while men and women for centuries have been returning to their places of remembrance and humble beginnings; trying to find some sense that their life mattered and that it counted for something, it all comes down to this one thing my friend - this one decision: have they allowed the cleansing blood of Jesus to wash them white as snow? This is your Bethel my friend, it could very well be your Peniel - the place where you will see the very Face of God within your spirit, and you will be changed forever! Won't you receive Him in your life today. Let me pray for you.

Father God: To be in prison is not just to be behind bars. There are drug addicts, food addicts, flesh addicts and people who have just lost touch with reality altogether. LOST without any hope of recovery. Then Jesus Came!!! Oh Father, never have there been sweeter words to the ears of this old boy than those words... "Then Jesus Came". Father I have seen the destruction in the lives and families of literally thousands in my life who had no hope, and Then Jesus Came, and bid the Darkness flee. Oh When Jesus comes, the Tempter's power is broken. When Jesus Comes all tears are wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills MY life with GLORY, for ALL is changed, when Jesus Comes to stay.

I ask for You to come this morning and bless this dear brother, this dear sister who is living in such bondage and in such darkness that they cannot see God. Their situation and their circumstance have so ensnared them that the only way they can be set FREE again is to be PARDONED from their misery. OH Father... You have done just that so long ago on Calvary. You sent your Son Jesus who knew no sin to become our sacrifice and His Precious Blood has wiped the slate clean. Father if they come to You and can trust in You, you will restore them and give their lives meaning maybe for the first time.

Now brother or sister... If you're wanting God to do that in your heart and life, I want you to repeat this prayer after me will you. Let this be not Just your Bethel this morning but let it be your Peniel as well. Just say....

Jesus, Son of God, I have sinned and I know it. I live with the regret and consequence of that sin everyday of my life... and I need some relief. I need someone to allow me to express how I feel about the choices I have made and to not just shake my hand and place me back in the "gen-pop" of society, but to release me from this prison I am in. I am asking you to come into my Heart Jesus and forgive me of my sin and to begin to work on my behalf. I'm asking for you to  deliver me from myself and the countless hours of regret over the choices that I made. I am asking that you would give me a new hope and a new life and that you would make me whole again on the inside. I know it sounds like I'm asking allot, but either your WORD and Your Promises are everything they say they are... or they're nothing at all. I've tired everything else Jesus: I need a new life. Come into my heart today and Be MY Lord! I surrender to you today. In Your Name I pray, Amen.