A quiet spot is required.
Open ears are required.
An open mind is required.
An open heart is required.
In our normal everyday lives, we listen to the radio, to the television, to the person in line at the store, to the weather forecast, to the person calling us names as they cut us off in traffic.
We listen to our children, what they want, what is hurting them, and what they find most bothersome that day.
Sometimes we listen to our parents (as we get older, we seem to value their hidden wisdom much more), sometimes listen to the youth leader or pastor.
Very rarely though, do we listen to God. Rarely I say because we always "hear" God and we always "see" God. We see Him in the world around, we see Him working in lives around us and we see Him when he works in our lives.
We hear Him when he asks us to do something, when He tells us to stop doing something, when He desires us to serve Him.
Yet though we hear Him, we do not listen. Listening would require that we fully acknowledge Him, His wishes, His plan, His desires, His likes and dislikes of our current state of living. Ultimately it would require that we most likely need to change something about ourselves, do something more for Him or stop doing something for Him. It could be more drastic, such as moving away, becoming a missionary half-way around the world or standing in front of 30 people teaching and leading a Sunday School class, or a small group.
Listening to God requires (as stated earlier):
A quiet place: We must block out all the maelstrom of life (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/maelstrom, 2nd definition) and find a quiet place in which we can focus on God and God alone. We can listen to Him in this small quiet and find out truly what He desires for us to be, to do, to not do and most of all, how He desires to use us for His glory.
Open ears: We must open our spiritual ears to listen to God. This means being willing to hear the voice in the small quiet that we have attained. You must hear the voice, before you can listen to the voice.
Open mind: We must have our mind open, for it is the tool of Satan to plant thoughts of fear, thoughts of doubt, and thoughts that are misleading in general. Satan seeks to devour us, even if we are a saved Christian, he will stop at nothing to destroy our walk with God, destroy our testimony to Christ and see us fail to be that which the Lord desires us to be. Satan wishes to destroy our testimony so that others will fall by the wayside. Having an open mind is paramount to being able to listen to God. We must block out the wiles of the devil and place God alone in our thoughts to be able to listen fully with understanding and willingness to be led by the Lord.
Open heart: We must understand that God will ask us to do things that are not easy, are not fun and are not glorious to ourselves. However, with the open heart that is required to truly listen to God, we can understand that it is for Him and His will that we are listening, and thus we can have grace, strength and wisdom to accomplish all things through Christ. We can understand that His calling is so far above any other that there is truly no comparison and that His blessings will far outweigh the temporary pleasures of the Earth.
With all four of these items present, we can truly listen to God, His will for our lives, and we can do so understanding that it is not about our needs, our desires and wants, but about His kingdom, His glory and His desires and wants for our lives. We can understand what He requires of us, and we can accomplish it with the necessary grace, strength, wisdom, compassion, understanding and peace knowing that He is standing there with us, guiding us and keeping us from falling on our face, if we are truly listening to His guidance.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Go Crazy
As I sit here waiting for the latest version of PHP to compile on my web server, I have been sorting through some thoughts that I have been having the past few weeks/months.
I came up with a little saying a while back, and for some reason it seems that it could be taken as rude, curt or just wrong - the saying is:
Societal according to dictionary.com:
It is not that we are blind to the world around us, but that we idiots when it comes to people, their relationships with each other and their relationships to God. Calloused point of Societal Ignorance. We just don't find out where people truly are in their daily walk with God - we make one of two assumptions far too often - they are either saved or unsaved.
How many times do we stop and find out the Why? Why are they not saved? What is their road block to eternal salvation? What can we do to share the love of Christ with them?
If they are saved do we ever ask the Why? Why do they not serve in the church? Is there a bad experience from serving and it not working out right? Do they have a lack of self confidence in their service to the Lord?
Paul wrote in the New Testament, letters to churches that were meant to either steer the leaders and thus the church back on the right track, or to build up confidence in what the church and the leaders were doing.
The point of this? GO CRAZY.
Huh? Why is it we can memorize 5 years worth of players and their stats for our favorite {insert your sport name here} team. Why is it we can remember 3 languages (whether it be societal languages, programming languages, or something like Braille)? Why is it that we can learn and remember how to tear-down a car engine, rebuild it better and make it perform beyond the original manufacturer's spec? Because therein lies a passion for that particular part of life. A passion that generates within us a capacity to do great things with our mind, our bodies and sometimes our souls.
It is this same passion (though much more intense and very much more properly focused) that Christ took with himself to the Cross on Calvary. This passion that led him to be praying so fervently that he literally sweat blood. The same passion that He raised Lazarus with is the same passion He promises to raise the believer with. This passion made for us, a pathway to commune with our Father in Heaven - whenever we need, wherever we need. The passion with which he did the will of the Father - even though he did not want to (Matthew 26:39 - And he went a littler farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.). This is the Passion of The Christ. To do as the Father willed, not as he himself willed - to set the example of obedience, to set the example of sacrifice, to set the example of love.
Why is it we have a hard time reading (or gasp - studying) the Bible, when we seem to have plenty of time to learn all the characters of our favorite novel, their traits, characteristics, their needs, wants and desires? Yet, we have a hard time understanding, finding and learning God's traits, characteristics and His needs, wants and desires for our lives and service unto Him?
Because the enemy is strong, beguiling and most of all out to destroy us, preferably before we come to the point of salvation in Christ Jesus. Yet, even after we are saved, Satan continues to hammer us to the point of desperation - to the point that we fall on our face - many times hard, fast and what we would call "without warning". However, Christ always gives us a warning - always gives us a consequence and always gives us a way around the beguiles of the devil. This choice, commonly called free will, is ours alone to make - and oh how many times we fall on our faces, make the wrong choice, the choice that goes against the Will of the Father.
Go Crazy. What do I mean by go crazy? What if we took and gave to our service to the Lord 50% of what we give to our other passions in life? What kind of great things could we do with our lives for God? It would be unprecedented. If we took our passion for God to a higher level, what could we accomplish? We could accomplish any task that God set before us, but only because our passion was with God, for God and through God. We must have the passion for service to God, and he will, through us, work amazingly - things that we may not even be able to fathom could come down from the Lord Himself.
You see, it is not because of our abilities, our gifts or our tools that we accomplish anything, but because of the passion with which we carryout the duties that God gives to us, that He accomplishes His work through us using the gifts, abilities and tools he has prepared within us for His use. This passion that carries truth, light and the Will of God is that passion that drove Paul to become the warrior for Christ that bestowed upon us the majority of the New Testament. The same passion that took him from hating Christians to becoming a light in the dark prison hole where himself and Silas sang hymns and praises unto God in the worst of the worst. Do we have that passion? Do we have what it takes to go crazy for Christ?
I came up with a little saying a while back, and for some reason it seems that it could be taken as rude, curt or just wrong - the saying is:
Societal Ignorance.
"It's not that we carry out our daily lives in oblivion, but that we have grown to be the calloused point of societal ignorance."
Societal according to dictionary.com:
noting or pertaining to large social groups, or to their activities, customs, etc.Ignorance according to dictionary.com:
the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.We do not live in oblivion. We all know many things about the world we live in, the societies it holds and the people that make up those societies. Especially in the United States. The point of this snippet of English language is this:
It is not that we are blind to the world around us, but that we idiots when it comes to people, their relationships with each other and their relationships to God. Calloused point of Societal Ignorance. We just don't find out where people truly are in their daily walk with God - we make one of two assumptions far too often - they are either saved or unsaved.
How many times do we stop and find out the Why? Why are they not saved? What is their road block to eternal salvation? What can we do to share the love of Christ with them?
If they are saved do we ever ask the Why? Why do they not serve in the church? Is there a bad experience from serving and it not working out right? Do they have a lack of self confidence in their service to the Lord?
Paul wrote in the New Testament, letters to churches that were meant to either steer the leaders and thus the church back on the right track, or to build up confidence in what the church and the leaders were doing.
The point of this? GO CRAZY.
Huh? Why is it we can memorize 5 years worth of players and their stats for our favorite {insert your sport name here} team. Why is it we can remember 3 languages (whether it be societal languages, programming languages, or something like Braille)? Why is it that we can learn and remember how to tear-down a car engine, rebuild it better and make it perform beyond the original manufacturer's spec? Because therein lies a passion for that particular part of life. A passion that generates within us a capacity to do great things with our mind, our bodies and sometimes our souls.
It is this same passion (though much more intense and very much more properly focused) that Christ took with himself to the Cross on Calvary. This passion that led him to be praying so fervently that he literally sweat blood. The same passion that He raised Lazarus with is the same passion He promises to raise the believer with. This passion made for us, a pathway to commune with our Father in Heaven - whenever we need, wherever we need. The passion with which he did the will of the Father - even though he did not want to (Matthew 26:39 - And he went a littler farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.). This is the Passion of The Christ. To do as the Father willed, not as he himself willed - to set the example of obedience, to set the example of sacrifice, to set the example of love.
Why is it we have a hard time reading (or gasp - studying) the Bible, when we seem to have plenty of time to learn all the characters of our favorite novel, their traits, characteristics, their needs, wants and desires? Yet, we have a hard time understanding, finding and learning God's traits, characteristics and His needs, wants and desires for our lives and service unto Him?
Because the enemy is strong, beguiling and most of all out to destroy us, preferably before we come to the point of salvation in Christ Jesus. Yet, even after we are saved, Satan continues to hammer us to the point of desperation - to the point that we fall on our face - many times hard, fast and what we would call "without warning". However, Christ always gives us a warning - always gives us a consequence and always gives us a way around the beguiles of the devil. This choice, commonly called free will, is ours alone to make - and oh how many times we fall on our faces, make the wrong choice, the choice that goes against the Will of the Father.
Go Crazy. What do I mean by go crazy? What if we took and gave to our service to the Lord 50% of what we give to our other passions in life? What kind of great things could we do with our lives for God? It would be unprecedented. If we took our passion for God to a higher level, what could we accomplish? We could accomplish any task that God set before us, but only because our passion was with God, for God and through God. We must have the passion for service to God, and he will, through us, work amazingly - things that we may not even be able to fathom could come down from the Lord Himself.
You see, it is not because of our abilities, our gifts or our tools that we accomplish anything, but because of the passion with which we carryout the duties that God gives to us, that He accomplishes His work through us using the gifts, abilities and tools he has prepared within us for His use. This passion that carries truth, light and the Will of God is that passion that drove Paul to become the warrior for Christ that bestowed upon us the majority of the New Testament. The same passion that took him from hating Christians to becoming a light in the dark prison hole where himself and Silas sang hymns and praises unto God in the worst of the worst. Do we have that passion? Do we have what it takes to go crazy for Christ?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Shattered
When my world around me was shattered,
I leaned upon you Lord.
When it all fell apart,
Your grace let me see the pieces.
When the anger ensued,
Your love quenched the flames.
When I stood broken,
You made me whole.
I cry to you Lord,
for you alone can comfort.
I lean on you Lord,
for you alone are the rock.
I reason with you Lord,
for you are gentle and just.
I kneel before you Lord,
for you are my King.
No matter what this life contains,
it is sufficient enough for me.
No matter what valley I find,
your grace carries me through.
No matter what is done to me,
your plan for me does not waver.
No matter what I have done,
your love triumphs all.
When the punches come swift,
you gird my soul with strength.
When the pain seems to endure,
you cover me with your protection.
When the path before me dims,
you shine all the more brighter.
When I stumble in my way,
you are there to lift me onto my feet.
Lord, to you I have said,
I love you and trust you,
with this life you have given me.
I love you and trust you,
with the plan you have for me.
I love you and trust you,
in all that you have done, for me.
For me, you died,
For you, I live.
I leaned upon you Lord.
When it all fell apart,
Your grace let me see the pieces.
When the anger ensued,
Your love quenched the flames.
When I stood broken,
You made me whole.
I cry to you Lord,
for you alone can comfort.
I lean on you Lord,
for you alone are the rock.
I reason with you Lord,
for you are gentle and just.
I kneel before you Lord,
for you are my King.
No matter what this life contains,
it is sufficient enough for me.
No matter what valley I find,
your grace carries me through.
No matter what is done to me,
your plan for me does not waver.
No matter what I have done,
your love triumphs all.
When the punches come swift,
you gird my soul with strength.
When the pain seems to endure,
you cover me with your protection.
When the path before me dims,
you shine all the more brighter.
When I stumble in my way,
you are there to lift me onto my feet.
Lord, to you I have said,
I love you and trust you,
with this life you have given me.
I love you and trust you,
with the plan you have for me.
I love you and trust you,
in all that you have done, for me.
For me, you died,
For you, I live.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Untitled
Long ago, a dream.
The distance now closing in,
strangling, choking.
Held back, waiting.
Days unfold nighttime,
night lays waste to the dream.
Time becoming short,
facing the remnants,
of the dream.
Wonder fills me,
at how I find myself in pieces.
The distance now closing in,
strangling, choking.
Held back, waiting.
Days unfold nighttime,
night lays waste to the dream.
Time becoming short,
facing the remnants,
of the dream.
Wonder fills me,
at how I find myself in pieces.
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