Are We Hearing God or Ourselves? 

One Sunday as I was turning on and testing the sound equipment in preparation for our worship service, I discovered that something didn’t sound right. Upon closer examination I found that the main speakers didn’t appear to be working. After not seeing any obvious cause for this issue, we resorted to a temporary back-up plan. Due to the small size of our sanctuary, we were able to make some adjustments in order to be able to adequately function that day until we got someone there to check out the problem. We simply turned up the volume of the stage monitors - the speakers pointing back to the platform so that those who are speaking or singing can hear themselves. We cranked those smaller speakers up enough that the congregation could hear what was coming through those devices, even though they were pointing in the opposite direction.

 We seem to be doing something similar in our society today. Much has been said about how we are tending to gravitate more and more to merely hearing our own voices or listening only to those in the news media or on social media who agree with our points of view. In a sense we have turned off the other speakers and are only listening to the stage monitors as they sound forth some version of our own words and thoughts. We tend to be unwilling to hear the other side, to consider that some of our opinions could be wrong, and to look at matters from a different angle.

While that can be unhealthy in some ways, in certain situations it can be understandable and even commendable. When it comes to truth, we shouldn’t compromise, nor should we give a listening ear to deceptive doctrines. And it is natural to connect with those who are likeminded to us. We need that encouragement and support from others, especially when more people are turning away from those truths and we often feel like a growing minority.

However, I believe we have to be careful about letting this tendency to hear only our own voices carry over into our communications with the Lord. Are we really hearing the voice of God or are we merely hearing our own thoughts and views being projected back to us? Are we open to hearing the fullness of divine truth, or are we letting our views based on personal preferences, traditions, and other factors severely taint that message? All of us need to be careful that we seek to hear the unadulterated word of God, not simply some twisted version that meets with our approval.

How can we be certain whether we are truly hearing God’s voice or merely our own words being reflected back to us? Hopefully, as we mature spiritually, we can better discern the difference between our own inner voice and the voice of the Holy Spirit. Also, the content of the message should clue us in as to whether or not it is in harmony with God’s character of love, truth, holiness, grace, and justice. However, the greatest aid in this quest to hear God’s voice is the fact that we have been given a more objective means of communication – the written word of God. Our personal feelings and thoughts may not always be reliable. We have to compare them to what God clearly says in the scriptures. Even then, we need to guard against interpreting those scriptures through our own lens in order to try to make it fit our viewpoint or lifestyle. We need to conform to God’s Word, not try to shape it to fit us or our ideas.

Let’s make sure we are listening to the main speaker declaring the word of the Lord and not just listening to ourselves.

 

Don’t Let Anything Block God’s Favor 

Much attention was given to the recent solar eclipse. There seemed to be more excitement than usual over this occasional phenomenon of nature when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. People flocked to those areas of the country where they could best view the totality of this event. However, most people in the United States, no matter where they lived, experienced some degree of the effects from the moon blocking out the rays of the sun and casting its shadow on the earth.

 While there were those who interpreted the eclipse as a sign of God’s judgment or of the drawing near of the end of the world, we can draw a more personal spiritual application from this unusual occurrence in nature. It has to do with our allowing something to get between us and God. There are times when the brightness of the Lord’s glory and favor toward us is dimmed due to the presence of unrepentant sin in our lives. We find ourselves living in the shadow of guilt and the condemnation of God rather than being able to enjoy the fellowship of His presence.

 David lived within that shadow for a time after his infamous sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the attempted cover-up in which he orchestrated the death of her husband. No doubt, David tried to go about his life as usual and carry out his duties as king as he had done previously. However, the scriptures testify that there was a dark cloud hanging over him during that period of time – “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (II Samuel 11:27).  It was only when God’s prophet confronted David with his wrongdoing that the darkness began to lift. David confessed that he had sinned against the Lord. He thoroughly repented, the expression of which can be seen in one of the psalms he penned at the time (see Psalm 51). And God graciously forgave him, even though there were still consequences that he had to face.

It is wonderful to live in the bright sunshine of God’s blessing and favor. Those who put their trust in Jesus as their Savior will enjoy the fullness of that experience one day when they go to be with the Lord for eternity. However, even now we can know the joy and peace that comes with the assurance that nothing is standing between us and our God. We can experience the reality of that biblical blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

Nevertheless, we can cause that light of God’s favor and blessing to dim when we willfully sin and live unrepentantly in its aftermath. Like David, we may try to go about our business as usual, but the shadow of God’s displeasure is lingering over us. In the darkness we may be blind to our need or deceive ourselves about our condition. We need to listen to God’s voice as He tries to point out the problem, call us to repentance, and bring us back into a right relationship with Him.

If we have allowed anything to darken God’s glory and favor in our life, let’s admit it, confess it, repent of it, and receive God’s forgiveness and restoration. Let’s keep our hearts clear and keep walking in His light.

In the words of an old song, “Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen; nothing preventing the least of His favor: keep the way clear! Let nothing between.”

 

Do We Love Jesus More than These? 

Our daughter-in-law recently posted a video of our two-year-old grandson sitting at the table eating applesauce while at the same time singing “Jesus Loves Me”. He would sing a word or two of that song, then shovel in another spoonful of his well-loved treat. He would go back to sing another phrase but interrupt himself with another bite of the delicious food. He kept going back and forth throughout the whole song. He seemed to be torn between his love for Jesus and his desire for applesauce, cutely choosing to try to enjoy them both at the same time.

Such actions are adorable in a toddler. I am thankful that he likes to sing about Jesus to the point that it would even rank up there at the same level with his beloved applesauce. However, his innocent actions can serve as a reminder to us adults to be careful about allowing other things to compete with our affections for the Lord. On the one hand, it is wonderful if we know the Lord, love Him, and are seeking to please Him. That is a very positive quality that shouldn’t be downplayed at all. In a day when many have little or no devotion toward Jesus, and some are downright hostile toward Him and what He represents, it is encouraging and commendable to see those individuals who exhibit a love for Jesus.

However, Jesus Himself calls us to go beyond simply allowing Him to be one of the many loves of our lives. He insists on being first. He lays claim to being number one on our list. We are to love Him first and above everything else. In light of His great love for us, it is only right. Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). We can have other loves in our lives. We should dearly love our spouses, parents, children, and others. There are even “things” and activities in our lives for which we can have great affection. While my grandson loves his applesauce, the treat I probably love the most is ice cream. Likewise, we can love our sports, our hobbies, and other aspects of this world God has given us to enjoy.

However, the key question we need to face is the one with which Jesus confronted Peter after His resurrection. It may have been in a little different context, but it can still apply to us. “Do you love Me more than these?” (John 21:15). Does our affection for Jesus rise above everything else in our lives? It can be easy to answer that question with a quick affirmative based on what we feel in our hearts. But do our actions back up that sentiment? Are we putting some of these other loves in our lives ahead of Jesus? Do we allow our pursuit of those other things to get in the way of our pursuing to know Jesus better and to serve Him as He calls us to do? Do we just squeeze in a few worship songs expressing our love for Jesus on Sunday mornings, while spending most of the rest of our time and energy indulging in all these other aspects of life that hold our affections? The question may not be “Do we love Jesus?” We certainly do. But maybe we need to ask, “Do we love Him more than these?” 

  What is it that competes with your love for Jesus? Whether it is applesauce, ice cream, your favorite sport, your family, or yourself, let’s make sure that our love for Jesus supersedes all other loves in our lives. Let’s love Him more than anything.

 

Not All Resurrections Are Flawless 

I thought I had witnessed a resurrection. My “smartwatch” that I wear to keep track of the number of steps I take each day had apparently died. The fatal incident had occurred while I was finishing some yardwork with others at our church. I concluded that it must have been the result of water getting on the sensitive instrument as I was using a leaky hose pipe. At first, I couldn’t get it to power up at all. However, after a day or two, it showed a few signs of life but with numerous quirks in its readout. At the suggestion of a couple of other people, I buried the watch in a small pile of rice in an attempt to draw out any remaining moisture. Afterwards I thought this procedure had been successful. I was ready to declare a resurrection. Everything seemed to be working normally. But it didn’t last. Soon my watch started exhibiting signs that there was still a problem and ended up dying again.

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus this weekend, I am thankful that it wasn’t a temporary or flawed event. Jesus didn’t rise only to die again. As He declared in a vision to John, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18). The writer of Hebrews points out the importance of the fact that Jesus is a great high priest who lives forever, in contrast to human priests who only served for a short time before passing on from this life. “But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:24-25). The good news is that we still serve a living Savior today. He is even now alive and interceding for us before His heavenly Father.

Additionally, His resurrection wasn’t faulty in any way. It was perfect and complete. Jesus was raised from the dead in glory and power. And the Bible tells us that we will experience a similar resurrection one day. The remains of these physical bodies will be transformed into a glorious creation fit for eternity. “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body (I Corinthians 15:42-44). As Jesus rose to live forever, so will we.

Unfortunately, the promise of our resurrection isn’t good news for everyone. While we all will be raised to live forever, the condition in which we spend eternity is dependent on how we responded to God’s grace during our years on earth. Jesus declared, “For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29). We will be resurrected to face either the joys and blessings of God’s favor or the awful consequences of His judgment. It all depends on whether or not we put our faith in the resurrected Christ as the only One who can save us from our sins. Did we do good – receive God’s grace through Jesus and let Jesus enable us to live a holy life? Or did we do evil – reject God’s gift of salvation and live for ourselves?

Put your faith in the resurrected Jesus today, so that you can be assured not just of living forever like Him, but living gloriously in His presence and in God’s favor.   

 

Seek To Fly Higher with the Lord 

Last week I was driving along the highway when I witnessed the vehicle approaching me in the oncoming lane strike a bird as it attempted to fly across the road. When I looked in my rearview mirror, I could see the creature laying on the pavement, either stunned or dead. It appeared to be the same kind of bird I had seen on previous occasions exhibit the same kind of low-flying, daredevilish behavior. It was one of those beautiful red cardinals. I have often noticed this particular species’ propensity to fly low to the ground. In some areas, it isn’t a problem. However, when it is crossing a busy highway, this practice can tend to have fatal results. I think I have even hit one or two of them myself over the years.

I sadly thought, “If only those birds would fly a few feet higher they would avoid the danger.” It wouldn’t take much. They wouldn’t have to soar high in the sky as I saw a hawk majestically doing over our church property recently. If they would just aim a little higher, they could survive their encounter with the cars and trucks speeding down the road.

The same could be said for some of us who are seeking to follow Jesus. We tend to fly too low, putting ourselves in danger while missing out on the blessings of a higher experience. In some cases, it may be people who are having a hard time separating themselves from the ungodly aspects of the world. They choose to fly low – to stay as close to this world and its temporary pleasures as they can while still trying to follow the Lord at the same time. If they keep going that way, allowing the world to have such a strong downward pull on them, they are very likely to crash.

However, for others of us, it may not be the attraction to the world that is holding us down but simply the lack of understanding or lack of faith that a higher flight is possible. We have surrendered to the idea that we have no choice but to fly low as believers. We emphasize the fact that we are only human and have all these sinful tendencies. We submit to the non-biblical notion that sinning has to be a constant part of our lives weighing us down. We think we can’t rise above it, so all we can do is fly low while depending on God’s forgiveness for our inability to go any higher. We have been taught, or have otherwise concluded, that God’s commands about being holy, having a pure heart, loving Him with all our hearts, loving our enemies, being Christlike, and various other directives that lift up a high standard are unattainable in this life.  

Some of us need to recognize that God calls us to fly higher than that. We need to have greater faith in what God can do in our lives. We need to believe His word when it calls us to a higher experience. It isn’t just talking about how God perceives us due to what Jesus did for us on the cross, as wonderful as that is. But it is also referring to the real changes He can actually make in our hearts and our behavior so that we can be the godly people He calls us to be. That also comes only through Christ, not through our efforts. However, it is a real change that gives us greater victory over sin and enables us to live more consistently in line with God’s will for us.

Don’t settle for a lower and more precarious existence. Trust Jesus to help you fly higher and to become more like Him.

 

Look for God’s Appointments in Your Life 

Last weekend I saw a commercial that contained the statement, “Some things are too obvious to be a coincidence.” That declaration expressed how I felt about something which I had experienced just a few days prior to viewing the ad. I had come away from it with the clear sense that God had orchestrated the encounter.

It began routinely enough as I took my wife’s vehicle to get it serviced. As I was waiting on the work to be done, another man entered the establishment asking if he could hang around until the nearby car rental business opened. He came into the waiting area, we exchanged greetings, and almost immediately he asked if I was a pastor and suggested that I looked familiar to him. As it turned out, he had read my newspaper columns regularly, even making numerous copies of one in particular that he had distributed to people over the years. This fresh revelation of someone finding my writing to be meaningful even to the point of sharing it with others came at a time when I needed such encouragement. However, the story doesn’t stop there.

 After further conversation, I discovered that the reason this gentleman was getting a rental car was because he was traveling to attend a Christian writer’s conference. He was in the process of writing his first book and seeking to get it published. Therefore I was able to share some of my experiences with him and hopefully was of some assistance as he pursued this new endeavor. So not only had he encouraged me, but possibly I was a blessing to him in some way too. Before this man departed to procure his car, we took a moment to pray for each other. I was left with a joyful assurance that the Lord had brought us together that morning.

Don’t get the wrong impression. Such obviously God-directed meetings aren’t a daily occurrence for me. This was the clearest such event I had experienced in a while. However, I do believe God is daily directing the steps of His followers and often setting up encounters with other people whether or not they are as evident as this one was to me. I did not have any specific guidance from God that led me to the car shop that day. My being there was because our vehicle needed some attention. However, I had prayed that morning, as I usually do, for the Lord’s direction about what I would do that day. In contrast, the other man involved told me how he had specifically prayed for where God wanted him to go while he was waiting for the rental car business to open. He felt a definite divine push to go where he went.  

The point is that the Lord has places for us to be and people to meet each day. It may come as part of our everyday routine, or it may happen as the Holy Spirit nudges us in some unusual direction. We need to be seeking His guidance, receptive to His leading, expecting opportunities, and ready to walk through the doors He opens for us. It may be that He wants to use you to be a help and blessing to someone, or it could be that He wants to send someone to you who will encourage or bless you in some way.

When I walked into that car shop, the man behind the counter asked if I had an appointment. I told him that I didn’t. However, I found out that God had set up a different kind of appointment for me that day. He has appointments for you too. Look for them as you cross paths with people each day. Those encounters aren’t just coincidences.

 

Let Jesus Be Your Everyday Companion 

Recently my wife and I ate dinner at a rather expensive restaurant which we had never visited before. The only reason we were dining there at this point was due to my wife having won a gift card for that establishment through a contest on a Christian music radio station. It was great food and an enjoyable experience, but because of the cost I am not sure we will do it again, unless we can win another gift card. When we made our online reservation, the website asked if we were coming there because we were celebrating some kind of special occasion, listing several specific options, such as a birthday or anniversary. We ended up selecting one of the last-mentioned choices – “just because”. Apparently this business considers itself to be geared more for an occasional experience rather than being a restaurant customers will tend to visit on a regular basis.

As Easter approaches in a few weeks, we are reminded how some people see church in a similar manner. It isn’t their regular hangout, but they will visit there for special events or significant occasions, such as Easter, Christmas, weddings, or funerals. They may find those encounters to be meaningful, but don’t intend to make it a part of their everyday lives. Those of us who are regular worshipers should welcome those visitors and seek to make the most of those opportunities for the Lord to impact their lives while they are there.

However, this isn’t just the way some people view attending church, but how some look at God or Jesus in general. They treat Him more as someone to resort to in certain specific situations rather than as an everyday companion. When they get sick or receive bad news from a medical test, they suddenly remember Him and reach out to Him. When they get hit by other trials in life, they start looking for Him and His help. Maybe they haven’t given much thought to Him in a while, but at a funeral or in a hospital they are reminded of Him. They aren’t willing to pay the cost of discomfort and guilt over their neglect of Him or their disobedience to Him in most cases, but in those situations they are willing to endure it for a moment before returning back to their usual world where God is either ignored or relegated to a rarely-opened closet in the back corner of their lives.

The good news is that the Lord never intended to be our expensive restaurant for special occasions. He wants to be our neighborhood diner or our family kitchen. He desires for us to come and dine with Him every day. He wants to free us from the guilt that makes us feel bad when we encounter Him. He can replace it with peace and joy as we come into a right relationship with Him. We don’t even have to go to any particular location to find Jesus. He comes right to our door. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). Jesus can be our ever-present guest. He can be with us wherever we go. We can draw strength from Him throughout our day. We can lean on Him when we need support. We can feed on His word. We can look to Him for courage, comfort, and hope.

Jesus isn’t just someone to resort to at the end of life or on some special occasion. He can be our Savior, Friend, and Lord every day and every hour. Open up the door of your heart and experience Him for yourself.