By pastorscott
Learning to listen
Proverbs 3: Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go.
We tend to think that hearing from God is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or maybe that it’s something only saints on earth experience. It isn’t true. The Lord created us for fellowship. From the beginning he walked with Adam in the cool of the day. I don’t have to do some extreme thing to hear from God. All I have to do is listen; but that’s a problem isn’t it? Hearing the Voice of God in the ordinary flow of life takes practice. If I want to hear him speak when I’m sitting in the emergency room of a hospital or when a precious friend is pouring his heart out to me seeking spiritual council I have to practice listening for him when I’m not in the pressure cooker of life. I’m certain that God speaks, and that he does so constantly. Sadly, I am also sure that I’m not a very good listener. For this proverb to work for me, for me to listen for God’s voice everywhere I go, I need to practice the presence of God everyday. The way to accomplish that is for me to discipline myself to meet God by creating quiet places in life where I can learn to hear his Voice. Then, when I’m out there in the “everywhere you go” part of life, I will have trained my spiritual ear to recognize the Master’s Voice.
By pastorscott
A short look at Elihu
Job 32: And rest assured, I won’t be using your arguments!
I’m not sure what to do with Elihu. He’s the fourth person who comes to speak to Job. When the first three speak, Job interacts with them, responding to the things they say. Elihu, however, has a long monologue. Job doesn’t answer him and, at the end of the book, God addresses the three friends but not Elihu. The experts say that his speech is likely an “add on” to the book of Job, written after the fact. That, though, is confusing too. Why would anyone do that? In spite of the fact that Elihu claims that he won’t be using the arguments of Job’s friends, he actually doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said to, and refuted by, Job. As a devotional reader and writer, I’ll leave these puzzling things to others, but I don’t think I want to work my way through his sermon with the same intensity I did with the other speakers. So what will I do with this? Maybe it’s reasonable to focus in on the fact that Elihu doesn’t seem to have been listening very well to what the others said. Sometimes we’re so intent on what we are about to say that we don’t hear what others say. When we do speak, we just restate, in our own words, their thoughts. Or, I can think about Elihu’s waving of the “youth flag;” thinking he is bringing a fresh perspective, when he’s just as bound by the old way of thinking as Job’s three friends. Being a traditionalist who can’t handle opposing truth is not necessarily tied to one’s age. Finally, I can see here an example of how, if we start with the wrong premise we’re bound to arrive at the wrong conclusion. Like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Elihu starts off thinking that bad things only happen to bad people. Because of that, he arrives at the wrong conclusion: Job must be a bad person. Okay, enough of Elihu…on to the appearance of the Lord, Himself!
By pastorscott
1 Samuel 15: Do you think all God wants are sacrifices — empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him!
Listening, obedience, relationship
Saul’s a failure in the eyes of God. His large army and military victories don’t impress the Lord. Now Saul blames the soldiers; something that doesn’t wash with the Almighty. Then, he says he’s going to sacrifice the animals in a worship service. Pitiful! Samuel has a word from the Lord for Saul. God isn’t interested in how many sacrifices Saul might make. Instead, he’s interested in obedience. Saul said “no” to God, now God is saying “no” to him. Saul will continue in power for some time to come, but, in reality, his leadership has come to a whimpering end. Oswald Chambers says that the greatest hindrance to our relationship to the Lord is the service we do for him. “Look at all I am doing for God” we declare, “Surely he can’t ask more of me than that.” He can and he does. Listening, obedience, and relationship: these things define God’s intentions for me. The Lord doesn’t put out a call for volunteer martyrs. He simply calls us to hear and obey. If that means sacrifice, fine. Otherwise, I listen to his voice and live my life in a relationship with him.
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By pastorscott
Hosea’s people have many reasons to trust in the Lord. Their story would have ended in Egypt centuries earlier had it not been for him. Countless nations have come and gone, yet they have remained. And it isn’t as though the Lord has done all this in secret. Instead, he has been very active, openly blessing them and speaking to them through prophets and priests and kings. Hosea’s people have every reason to know God and to worship him alone. Through Hosea the Lord says, “I write out my revelation for them in detail and they pretend they can’t read it.” Like a child who puts his hands over his ears and sings “La, la, la — I can’t hear you” these rebellious people have quite intentionally turned from God, ignoring his call to them. However, it isn’t going to work. Its one thing to be unintentionally ignorant; mixed up and confused. It’s another to know that the message is there but to refuse to hear it. I think there are many people in my country today who are honestly confused and that, to a great extent we Christians are responsible because we have failed to clearly reflect Christ to them. However, we aren’t so far from the reach of God that everyone is in that situation. Many are covering their ears so they can’t hear what he is saying. That, my friend, is not a smart thing to do.
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By pastorscott
My immediate reaction upon reading this line is that it’s a call for us to spend more time studying the Scriptures. After all, Bible study is a good thing; at least I hope so since I spend a good percentage of my time doing it. To be honest though, I don’t think that’s what Jeremiah is talking about. His listeners know what their Scriptures say and consider themselves to be “owners of God’s revelation.” In other words, they know the Scriptures and claim that those precious words are written just for them. The problem isn’t that they don’t read God’s Word, it’s that they don’t listen to the word of the Lord! Through Jeremiah the Almighty is shouting out at them, trying to get their attention. They’re going in the wrong direction and need to turn around before it’s too late. While they are faithfully going to Bible studies they are ignoring what the Lord is saying to them at that very moment! We modern Christians had better pay attention to this passage. We have our KJV’s and our NIV’s and our NASB’s, and yes, our copies of The Message. We tune in to TBN or Sky Angel, listen to our Christian radio station, and then attend our Bible Studies. That’s just fine, in fact, that’s great. However, when the Lord bypasses all that stuff and speaks to our hearts what are we doing with it? Jeremiah says that even though they’re good at learning what the Scripture says that they are terrible at listening to the Lord when he speaks. Are we, and am I, doing the same?
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