OK, I love Genesis 35:13-15: "13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. 14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel." What great imagery. I can just picture Jacob overcome with a sense of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. It's interesting to note that the place that he went back to, that was so special and meaningful to him, was the place where God was most personal to him! In Jacob's case it was the place where God audibly spoke to him. Then Jacob poured out a drink offering and oil on the stone pillar that he set up as a memorial of what God had done. Those stones with the drink and oil dripping from them was a place for Jacob to remember God working in his life.
Do you have memories of God speaking to you or moving in your life in a particular way? Do remember the place and circumstance surrounding that time? I recall when God was leading me into full-time Christian ministry as a 16 year old kid at Awanita Valley in South Carolina. I remember God working through some serious spiritual issues in my freshman dorm room in Lynchburg, VA. I remember the tree that I sat under on the Appalachian Trail when He told me that I was supposed to ask Cynthia to marry me (so glad she said 'yes'). I can recall the bed that I was sitting on, one sleepless night, when God began to renew his call on my life in our apartment in Kennesaw, Ga. These are very vivid memories. It's too bad that I can't build and altar at these places, like Jacob did; but my memory will have to be my memorial. So where is your memorial? Where did you accept Him as your Savior? Where did he call you to live a better life than the year before? Where was it that He told you to finally rid yourself of that nasty habit? Do you have that memorial place where God spoke to you or moved significantly in your life? I'd love to hear about your memorial place. Leave a short comment and let me know about that place where God took care of business with you, just like He did with Jacob.