Hello and welcome to Enbolden, living a bold Christian life. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Thank you for joining me on spending 30 days of praising God. Today's praise and verse goes back to the beginning, Genesis 13, 3 through 4.
From the nagav he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and I where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. I heard a great sermon the other day about Genesis 13. I love how God lets us view people in the Bible with an almost cinematic touch.
We reach deep into their thoughts and their sins, their trials, their joys. We can sit back and know they are about to fail or conquer. But like any good director, God places seemingly insignificant artifacts, occurrences, and places into that story in order to get the beautiful breath of the story. And we need to look again and dig deeper.
That's the advantage of being in a church that hosts a good teaching pastor. They find the nuggets and carefully remove the outer layers revealing the gems. And so I learned the other day about Bethel, about coming home, about retracing my steps to bring me back closer to God. Two little sentences in the Bible showing me where to go when I feel lost, when I have gone off track, and I praise God today for Bethel, for his welcoming home.
Many years ago I wrote a short poem for my mother-in-law. The gist of the poem was that like a bird finds its comfort in a beautiful birdhouse so I find my home in comfort with her. A lot of people feel that way around her. She brings you in and gives you rest and that comfort.
In Abraham's case, after he made some disastrous decisions while in Egypt, he made the wise choice to go back to God's house, Bethel. It's where he had built the first altar to honor God. But he didn't just show up there, he entered back into communication with God, and he was surely welcome. Our human nature is to grow up and out of our parents' homes, to plunge into the world of adulthood and seemingly going it alone.
But for many who come from loving healthy homes, they know they can always come back for advice and aid. But our relationship with God is unique. He wants us always tethered to him. He desires to be constantly asked about who to marry, where to work, how to handle difficult relationships.
He wants us to join his home gem, giving us strength to make it through trials and tribulations. He longs to have us sit around the dinner table, sharing our day, our joys, and our pains. And when we wander too far away, we need to remember to retrace our steps. We need to follow our hearts back to Bethel.
Have an awesome day. I'd love to hear from you and find out more about how you are living out your bold Christian life. You can find me on Instagram at embolden- minus the O, or at my blog at embolden.net.