Dwelling on Things Above

Hi everyone, with life getting busier and busier, I haven’t found much time to be able to blog on a regular basis. Maybe some day I’ll be back; but for now, I’m signing off. Thank you to all who followed the blog and read the posts. God bless :)

An important part of hearing from God is… waiting. This is also probably the hardest part. Author Joel Delgado advises us in this article: “Don’t waste your wait.”

God Speaks: Part 4

This isn’t a major section in that chapter of Samra’s book, but it’s something that I’ve been learning recently about how to hear God (and it has been really, really hard!): Being still. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). With so many things vying for our attention, it’s hard to pull away from all of it, to get away from all the noise that distracts us from God.

I’ve honestly been frustrated lately that I haven’t been hearing God the way I’ve wanted to, and I’ve let that frustration block my spiritual hearing. I keep wracking my brain trying to figure out how God is going to speak to me on different issues I struggle with; but God doesn’t need our ideas on how to talk to us. He knows what will get through to us.

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist is in prison and begins to wonder if Jesus truly is the one they’ve all been expecting. Jesus sends word back to him with an answer in the form John needed: “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:4-5). Jesus spoke to John in a way He knew would reach him. We may have all sorts of ideas of how we want God to answer us, but God knows the perfect way to reply to each individual person. Just trust Him.

Sometimes we need to take a step back. Clear out the clutter. Be still, and let God speak. We often get in the way of God talking to us because we won’t be quiet enough to let Him get a word in! (And heads up, it’s probably not going to be in that audible voice we tend to think God should use to talk to us; it just doesn’t seem to be the method He chooses to use very often today. If you do hear an audible voice, make sure you check what it says by using your Bible!) So instead of trying to tell God how to work, let God show you how He will work in your life.  

God Speaks: Part 3

“Spiritual direction from others is not simply wise advise. Spiritual direction comes through another’s interaction with the Lord on your behalf.” - Jim Samra (p.83).

When we face big decisions in our lives, it is good to have someone come alongside us in that process of seeking the Lord. God often uses other people to guide us. They may see things we didn’t, help keep us accountable, pray with us and for us, as well as encourage and challenge as needed. Jim tells about a time he was seeking the Lord’s will about what book of the Bible God wanted them to study as a church. He asked fellow brothers in the Lord to seek guidance with him. Over the next couple of months, each of the men were led in the same direction: the book of John. Together, they sought from the Lord and received an answer.

When seeking spiritual direction from others, we have to be careful not to abuse it. First, seek direction from people who truly have your best interests in mind. Also, it’s best to ask mature believers who are grounded in Scripture and have learned to discern God’s voice through their walk with Him. Second, ask God for confirmations from multiple people.

Above all, check the direction you receive with what the Bible says. If it goes against Scripture, it isn’t from God.  

Just read this and thought it sounded absolutely beautiful: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” (Proverbs 4:18). What a wonderful way to live life! Don’t let the clouds of sin, despair, and hopelessness block your light this week. Shine for your King!
(Also, I know it’s been two months since my last post; lots of things going on in my spiritual life that I allowed to get in the way of writing; but I’m finally feeling ready to get back into the swing of the series).

A little rabbit trail from the current series of posts. In case you didn’t hear, there was a debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye at the Creation Museum a couple days ago. I’ve only seen about the last half hour or so; but I heard this snippet tonight that was so powerful: 

“And we make no apology about the fact that what we’re on about is this: if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved" - Ken Ham

People accuse Christians of having “an agenda.” One of my teachers in college told me I sounded like that; and what I should have said at the time is, “Yes, I do have an agenda. I want people to get saved and not spend an eternity in Hell. I’m not ashamed to admit that.” I didn’t say that, though, and it was a missed opportunity to briefly witness to my classmates. 

God tells us in Romans 1:16 not to be ashamed of the Gospel. All Christians are called to point others to Jesus. We are not down here to have a good time (though it’s not a sin to enjoy life); we are not down here for ourselves; we exist for the glory of God. That is our purpose. And the one thing that glorifies God more than anything else is helping to bring more people into the family of God. 

So when people accuse you of trying to covert them, don’t be ashamed to admit that that’s exactly what you’re trying to do. Jesus died on a cross to bring undeserving people like you and me into His kingdom and give them power over the sin in their lives. He was never ashamed of His mission. We should not be ashamed of ours either. 

As D.L. Moody said: “I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said to me, ‘Moody, save all you can.'”

If you haven’t seen the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye, it’s still viewable here: http://debatelive.org/

God Speaks: Part 2

A second way God speaks to us is through sermons. God has called certain men to be pastors, who study the Word of God extensively, learn about the cultures of Biblical times, delve into the Hebrew and Greek meanings of the words, etc. Sometimes, God uses their sermons to speak specific direction to people. However, we must be careful not to take everything a pastor says as being directly from God. Pastors are still human; their sermons aren’t perfect; and sometimes even great men of God get a little off course. There are pastors I admire but whom I don’t always agree with.

God wants us to follow the example of the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who didn’t just blindly accept everything they were told. Instead, they searched the Scriptures: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” That is what we must do also. Have the Bible open during the sermons and read along. Think about what the pastor is saying and ask yourself if it lines up with what you see in the Scriptures. God wants us to think about what we hear and what we read. 

Also, we must be careful not to read into things. For example, say you were struggling with a particular issue and at church Sunday morning, the pastor was talking about that very issue. Is that a definite sign that God is speaking to you through that pastor? Maybe… maybe not. We must still check what that pastor is saying by comparing it to what we find in God’s Word. 

God Speaks: Part 1

Recently, I finished this wonderful book called “God Told Me: who to marry, where to work, which car to buy… and I’m pretty sure I’m not crazy” by Jim Samra. I highly recommend it. One of the chapters is called “How Does God Speak to Us?” I want to explore that chapter in some upcoming devotions, as well as today’s.

The first way God speaks to us is, obviously, through the Bible. Samra says: “It is quite common for God to take a particular passage of the Bible… and speak through the text into our lives by applying the text to a particular situation.” This can get tricky, though, because we are apt to read things into passages in order to validate our desires and decisions instead of listening to what the passage is actually saying. Always remember to look at the context of the verse. 

Something that Todd says at the end of this video really stuck with me because I’ve been struggling with the issue of how to view God’s attitude about Himself. I was reading Psalm 46 the other day, in which God says in verse 10: “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” When I read that, the thought came to my mind: “God seems pretty self-absorbed.” Because if we heard a human being say, “I will be exalted,” we would think, “That guy’s full of himself.” But then I had to remind myself that, “This isn’t a human being talking here; this is God. He has the right to be like that.” Still, that didn’t fully wrap things up in my mind. 

I was watching this video about forgiveness, and at the end of it, Todd Friel says: “He’s the best thing. And Christopher Hitchens or a Richard Dawkins or a Sam Harrison would say, ‘Well, He’s a megamanaiacal dictator.’ Ok, wait a second. What should God show off to the universe? A lesser thing or the best thing? A kind God shows the world the best thing. What’s the best thing in the world? He is! So of course He shines the light on Himself. To shine the light on a lesser thing wouldn’t be kind. The kindest thing God can do is say, 'I am the only God. I am the true and living God.’ Taste and see because He is good.“ 

I’m definitely struggling less with this concept now. I’m curious if anyone has any thoughts on this, especially about this sentence: "To shine the light on a lesser thing wouldn’t be kind.” Agree or disagree? 

Don’t ask Jesus into your heart; ask Jesus to give you a new heart.