Help + Praise + Jacob's Ladder & More

Thank You Lord. I come before You and ask for Your mercy and grace over me again as I haven't been focusing much on You today. Yet now I come before You with my heart opened up and ask You to break it and shake it. It's really hard to stay focused on studying...Lord I need You now. At least I've done some part of my group project, we're going to finish(most of it) tomorrow.
Still need to study for my math midterm Wed night!

Hung out with Jeff for like an hour, he shared with me how his friend Aaron called him today and showed interest in coming to Impact this Sunday out of a blue! Jeff was really surprised and all he could do is to praise God =)....God You work amazing things when we pray and believe that You do all thing well! And Vicky, his friend from Occidental College, told him that she really enjoyed Impact this past Sunday and she love to worship God! Jeff, keep on pressing in and don't give up, dude.

I feel like God's been attracting many newcomers during this past month! Thank You Lord and I pray that each one of them would be changed when they have a incredible encounter with You and want to take up that cross and follow You! Lord I pray that wherever those people will be, they would have yearning hearts to know more and start building kingdoms for Your coming! These are the next leaders and we (the leaders right now) gotta follow our vision and start going after the ENCOUNTER - DISCIPLE - SEND actions! Enpowering the next generation is such an important thing to do and we gotta start right now (I think I've said something like this already, but it's so important!)! And I'm just starting to go after that vision, gotta admit. But since the beginning of this year I've understood more and more about our vision and WHY we CAN'T WAIT any longer to do what we're called to do as bodies of Christ!

-Verses & Thoughts-

Jacob's Ladder -Genesis 28:10~22-:
One of the famous stories of Jacob and of the old Testament. It goes something like this: God gave Jacob a dream. In the dream he saw a stiarway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And God made the same covenant that He made with Jacob's father Abraham & Issac.

I don't know whether this is from the Holy Spirit to me, but I see this image like this:
Jacob's Ladder represents the Cross. Jacob's Ladder connects heaven & earth together and connects the two--that men connect with the angels. Same thing for the cross--a bridge for men to enter eternity once again, to get connected with heaven through the blood shed on the cross.
Angels ascending and descending represent Jesus Christ. If the angels "descend" first and the "ascend", I would've put this as Jesus came as a baby and then risen from the dead 3 days after the crucifixtion. But NO. Ascending comes before descending. I see this in the context of end-time. That means Jesus has "ascended" to heaven, and then He will "descend" AGAIN. Phew. I don't know whether this is from the Spirit, but if it stirs your heart, feel free to make a comment and check out the story.

Here's God's promise to Jacob:
I am with you and will watch over you
wherever you go, and I will
bring you back to this land(where Jacob dreamed).
I will not leave you until I have done
what I have promised you.
-Genesis 28:15-
I like God's promise very much because basically He's saying that He's always with us in another way. His promises are still yet to be fulfilled! And those promises are unfailing! Because He hasn't finished doing what He's promised us (live with Him for eternity), He's not leaving us. Not even one step. That's the last thing He would do--leave us. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit =)

Jacob's Well - Genesis 29
I don't think this is the Jacob's Well mentioned in John 4. However Jacob did use the well! I have a question about verse 3. Is there a symbolic meaning to that verse in some way? Cuz I'm not really familiar with watering sheeps (obviously), don't even mention about getting water from a well! Please if someone who has some explanation to this, do share!

Another question(verse 11): Why did Jacob weep? Am I missing something? Or was Jacob just trying to get Rachel's attention and sympathy because he found his true love? Our of a blue, "Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud." Give me a break. I don't think anyone would start crying like a baby after his first kiss!...lol...weirdo.

Genesis 30 - 11 Tribes of Israel
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali,
Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph
The 12th - Benjamin (Genesis 35)

Genesis 31
Question: Why did Rachel steal the gods from her father's home before she left with Jacob? Because that's her past and she cannot let go? What happened to Rachel in the end? Did she get cursed or anything? Or she wanted the most valuable thing from her father's home?
-verse 19, 30~35-

Thank You Lord.
I want to love You and worship You.
I pray that You would help me to stay focus on school work for the entire day tomorrow and Wednesday! I Want to do well in all my classes!
Lord I also pray that You would guard my heart!
I want to be in constant worship/prayer mode!

Johnny

ps. Praise the Lord! He has mercy and blessings over my hard work of 13 hours last Thursday/Friday paper chaos! My TA told me that I did a great job on my paper and she actually showed it to other TAs! Woah. Lord I praise You and give the glory to You =)...I thought my paper was okay, yet nothing, NOTHING can stop Your favor!

pps. I was playing this VERY addicting game called Portal. Um...I don't recommend you to play it(cuz it's really addictive) but it's cool to give it a try. You gotta use your brain quite a lot. I finished all 40 levels today....hmm....it gets really hard in the end.