How awesome is this 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!" – Genesis 28v16-17

‘How awesome is the place!’ I love that phrase and I like the way it is rendered in this translation (NKJV). The King James rendered it in a way which perfectly suited their readers when they used the word ‘dreadful.’ Tyndale used the word ‘fearfull’ and Wycliffe used the word ‘worschipful’ to translate Jacob’s words. All of these words are excellent in helping us to understand what it means to be where God is. There is an awesome, fearful, wonderful, dreadful, terrible, worshipful presence of God when we are with Him.

It is easy in the midst of hard times and struggles and difficulties and seeming defeat to forget that God is in this place. We had the privilege last night of such an awesome reminder of being where God is and I was reminded that God is indeed in this amazing place.

Our church went to a service in a sister church not too far away. They had a group of Christian men them who have been gloriously delivered from lives of drug, alcohol, and utter dissipation. They gave testimonies and we joined with them in singing songs of praise and testimony. To watch these guys sing ‘Amazing Grace’ was an awesome experience.

As dark and slow and challenging as God’s work is in the place it is an awesome place because God is working here. It brings us, as Wycliffe translated it, to a ‘worschipful’ place.

In those dark and trying days when it seems like nothing is happening let us remember that God is here! Don’t ever forget it!