THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10.

 

At the last school assembly of the year with all the visiting parents and grandparents in attendance, our headmaster loved to say, “Allow your children to be bored.  Let them go outside and lie on the grass and look up at the sky and listen to the birds and the insects.  Don’t plan every moment of their summer.”  I’ve been thinking of that recently as I’ve looked at all the ways I keep myself from being bored.

Like everyone else, I spend a lot of my time waiting.  Waiting in line; waiting in doctor’s offices; waiting to get my oil changed.  Just waiting.  It used to be that I would look around at other people and imagine their circumstances and sometimes pray for them.  There was always something interesting happening around me because I entered into the present and became engaged.

I suddenly realized over the weekend that when everything stops, I pull out my IPhone to see if I have any messages.  I check FaceBook for new entries.  Has someone posted on Instagram?  Is there an update on the News bureaus?  Does Marco Polo have something?  And if I’ve already done that, there are games I can play.  I like Spider Solitaire and plain old Solitaire.  My IPhone does not allow me to be bored.  Or to be quiet.

There are so many messages in my head in response to what’s been sent to me or news items that disturb me.  I’m frustrated that I’m having a losing streak with Spider Solitaire.  I’m reflecting on work challenges that were revealed in weekend emails.  I don’t have time to be bored.  And how can I possibly be quiet?

How can I hear what God wants to say to me when I am able—all by myself—to be stimulated or frustrated or entertained with that little electronic rectangle I keep in my pocket?  I’ve come up with a brilliant solution, and so far, it’s working:  FAST.  Yes, fasting from all electronics that are not mandatory for family relationships and work.  I’m trying it cold turkey, and it’s rather nice.

Obviously, I’m speaking in hyperbole, but I’ve been observing how electronics can bless or curse us.  I don’t want the Voice I most need to hear and observe to be obscured because I’ve forgotten how to be still.  So for now, I’ve called a fast.

 

Father, above all things we need to hear you.  Show us what to do to ensure that we never miss a word from you.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

CHANGED PLANS

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”  Genesis 22:2

 

Can we even begin to imagine the pain that Abraham experienced when God ordered him to take this child and offer him as a burnt offering?  Isaac was the child of promise who had been born to Sarah and Abraham when they were long past the time of parenting.  He had been given after years of yearning and trusting, and now the One who had given the gift was asking that Isaac be given back.

The text does not recount the angst and suffering Abraham must have felt when he heard this somber command.  We do not know, but we can speculate.  Even so, Genesis 22:3 tells us that early the next morning Abraham began the journey up the mountain.  He didn’t procrastinate.  He obeyed in trust.  Not knowing what God would do, he trusted.  Even when Isaac asked him where the lamb was, Abraham trusted.

At the summit of the mountain, Abraham made an altar, placed the wood on it, tied up his precious son, and laid him in place.  Just as he was about to perform the final act of obedience, God stopped him.  One writer said that, had Abraham not known God as intimately as he did, he would have said the voice he heard was that of Satan.  But Abraham knew and stopped.  He had passed the test, and GOD PROVIDED the lamb.

I heard of a family that quarreled and allowed their differences to divide them.  When the matriarch of the family died, one of the sons wanted to erect a headstone, but the others aligned themselves against him.  He grieved at the lack of unity and respect until he spoke with his parish priest.  The wise man prayed with him, asking him to give his pain and expectations to the Lord.  The priest counseled him to abandon his desire to place the headstone on his mother’s grave and to instead honor his mother by affecting reconciliation within the family.  He surmised that that would be a greater memorial than a headstone.  At peace, the son obeyed and succeeded.

Even when we set out to do God’s will, there may be unknown factors that change our plans.  Abraham trusted God when he set out to climb the mountain; the grieving son trusted God when he abandoned his plans.  In both instances, God was faithful and was glorified.  Can we trust him to do the same with our changed plans?

 

Loving Father, we are so often certain that we are following you whole-heartedly when there comes an obstacle to our obedience.  Help us to trust you even when we do not understand.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

 

Please pray as I accompany a team today on a mission to another country.  I will not be posting on Thursday.  God bless you and thanks.

GOD’S VOICE

 

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21  (NIV)

 

Yesterday was Scott’s turn to teach our adult Sunday school class.  The topic from the Believe series was Peaceful.  The lesson was structured around three points:  peace with God, peace with others, and peace within ourselves.  As he addressed the foundational issue, peace with God, Scott gave us a list that contrasted God’s voice and the voice of our arch-enemy, Satan.

 

God’s Voice	Satan’s Voice
Still	Rushing
Leading	Pushing/restraining
Reassuring	Frightening
Enlightening	Confusing
Encouraging	Discouraging
Comforting	Worrying/distressing
Calming	Obsessing
Convicting	Condemning

 

We all have voices in our heads—sometimes they’re our own thoughts, and sometimes God is speaking to us.  But often Satan injects thoughts that are destructive, negative, or in some way detrimental to our spiritual life.  They rob us of our peace and produce distress in its stead.

 

My mom had an interesting method for identifying the voices in her head.  She said, “Always listen to the pronouns.  You can detect the source if the voice says, ‘He or him.’  God always say, ‘I.’” 

 

Jesus told us that we will know his voice if we’re his sheep.  I speak with my two grown children almost every day.  Never do they call and identify themselves; they just begin the conversation as soon as I say hello.  I know their voices, and they know mine.  I’m convinced that frequent conversations with our Lord will make us more and more familiar with his voice, and we’ll at some time be able to recognize him the moment he speaks.

 

We have all these and many more wonderful tools for walking in peace with Jesus:  discernment of the intent of the message, listening to the pronouns, and recognizing the voice.  There’s no need for us to ever be in confusion.

 

Father, thank you for all the wonderful teachers you’ve given us to grow us in our relationship with you.  Keep us in your peace as we listen to you and follow you.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

RECONCILIATION

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Matthew 5:23, 24

Walking with Jesus is not for sissies. Nor is it for narcissists. Jesus calls us to crucifixion and requires that we take his demands seriously. In this Matthew passage he asks us to immediately stop our worship of him if there’s an issue with someone else. We have to be the ones taking the initiative to make peace in a circumstance in which we possibly had no control. It really seems unfair.

I once heard a preacher say that God tasks the person who has the most faith with the responsibility of being the peacemaker. Simply put, God is the one who looks into our hearts and instantly recognizes whether or not Jesus is Lord there. He recalls how malleable we have been in his hands and how amenable we are to trusting his ways. And then he calls us to dealing with unfairness, with misinterpretation, and even with wrongs that we may have unknowingly provoked.

God looks in our hearts and knows if we are willing to obey without counting the cost in humiliation or misunderstanding. He knows that taking up the cross and dying to the flesh can only be done by one who walks with him and who knows how to access his measureless grace. And God requires that sort of sacrifice from the one who wants to grow in him.

My mom once told me of a quarrel that she’d had with my dad. Apparently, they were in the car going somewhere – she couldn’t recall where they were going or what the disagreement involved, but she remembered the tension. She said she was prompted to reach over and give my dad a mint, but she resisted. Again, the prompting came, and again she resisted. Finally, she took a gulp of grace and reached across the seat to offer the mint. The tension was broken; the atmosphere was changed. But she had to make the first move.

Father, help us to trust you to give us what we need in our daily relationships with those around us. Give us grace to be peacemakers even when we think we are without fault. Remind us that you are constantly reaching out to us to draw us to yourself, even when we least deserve it. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

MORE LITTLE THINGS

For God speaks in one way, and in two… Job 33:14 (ESV)

I am convinced that God is communicating all the time; we don’t always have our receivers turned on or we don’t perceive the message as coming from him.

Do you remember Tolstoy’s story of Martin Avdeitch who dreamed Jesus would appear to him the following day? The next morning Martin saw Stepanich shoveling snow and invited him in for a warm drink and told him about Jesus. Later, he saw a young woman with a baby shivering in the cold. He brought them in, gave them clothes, food, and money and told them about Jesus. Then he saw a boy stealing from an old lady. He settled their argument and gave love and compassion to them both.

That night as Martin grieved because God had not visited him as expected, the people he had helped appeared to him. That’s when he realized that God had indeed been present with him. He just hadn’t recognized him in his various shapes.

This weekend I was working in another city and discovered I had inadvertently left my pajamas at home. My team and I made a side trip to the local WalMart where I grabbed and paid for a colorful set of nightclothes with writing all over them. It was not until I was folding them later that I read the message, “All is well.”

Today would have been my mother’s ninety-first birthday. Every time I visited with her during her last year, she proclaimed to me, “All is well.” Thanks, Momo, for reminding me that our Father still reigns, and he still speaks.

Lord, open our ears, our eyes, our hearts to receive you however you wish to make yourself known. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.