We wrote yesterday about the revival at Asbury University, not confined to Asbury anymore, nor limited to Asbury students. People are flocking to the small college in Kentucky from around the world. Why?
As I have been reading Genesis this year, I’m struck by Jacob’s sense of place:
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. (Genesis 28.16 – 19, ESV)
Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. (Genesis 32.1, 2, ESV)
But what Jacob didn’t know is that God was in those places because Jacob was in those places! God is certainly at work at Asbury, but I don’t need to travel there to see him. God is at work in Monument, Colorado, too, and wherever you are.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. (Psalm 139.7 – 12, ESV)
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.26 – 28, ESV, emphasis mine)