One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 59
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January 13
MAURICIO AND DENA SERVE CHURCHES in a Colombian “red zone”—
a place where government forces, drug cartels, and guerrilla groups
compete for control. There are many safer locations for ministry, but
they know God has called them to stay and advance his Kingdom
there. Says Dena, “I’m a little afraid, but I’m trusting the Lord and praying always. We put our hands in his.” • LORD, GUARD AND PROTECT
those like Mauricio and Dena, who serve where the harvest is ready
but the workers are few. Give them the peace that can come only from
you, and grant them a great harvest through their ministry. Amen.
GENESIS 28:1–29:35
So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said,
“You must not marry any of these Canaanite
women. 2 Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram,
to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and
marry one of your uncle Laban’s daughters.
3 May God Almighty* bless you and give you
many children. And may your descendants
multiply and become many nations! 4 May
God pass on to you and your descendants* the
blessings he promised to Abraham. May you
own this land where you are now living as a
foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to
Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban,
his mother’s brother, the son of Bethuel the
Aramean.
6 Esau knew that his father,
Isaac, had
blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram
to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob,
“You must not marry a Canaanite woman.”
7 He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 It was now
very clear to Esau that his father did not like
the local Canaanite women. 9 So Esau visited
his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of
Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives
he already had. His new wife’s name was Ma
halath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the
daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.
10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at
a good place to set up camp and stopped there
for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his
head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he
slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached
from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the
angels of God going up and down the stairway.
13 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord,
and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your
grandfather Abraham, and the God of your
father, I saac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your
descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as
JANUARY
13
numerous as the dust of the earth! They will
spread out in all d
irections—to the west and
the east, to the north and the south. And all the
families of the earth will be blessed through
you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I
am with you, and I will protect you wherever
you go. One day I will bring you back to this
land. I will not leave you until I have finished
giving you everything I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t
even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and
said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none
other than the house of God, the very gateway
to heaven!”
18 The next morning Jacob got up very early.
He took the stone he had rested his head
against, and he set it upright as a memorial
pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He
named that place Bethel (which means “house
of God”), although it was previously called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey,
and if he will provide me with food and clothing, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s home,
then the Lord will certainly be my God. 22 And
this memorial pillar I have set up will become a
place for worshiping God, and I will p
resent to
God a tenth of everything he gives me.”
29:1 Then
Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in
the land of the east. 2 He saw a well in the distance. Three flocks of sheep and goats lay in an
open field beside it, waiting to be watered. But
a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well.
3 It was the custom there to wait for all the
flocks to arrive before removing the stone and
watering the animals. Afterward the stone
would be placed back over the mouth of the
well. 4 Jacob went over to the shepherds and
asked, “Where are you from, my friends?”
“We are from Haran,” they answered.
5 “Do you know a man there named Laban,
the grandson of Nahor?” he asked.
“Yes, we do,” they replied.
