Hearing His Voice

I am sharing this in the hope that someone will be encouraged and hear God, maybe for the first time. I am not highlighting my holiness. To the contrary, I am sharing some ways God graciously dusts me off time and again and gives me direction for life's often-arduous journey. If He does it for me, He’ll do it for you. I’m nothing special. I’ve just learned that if I am to hear God, I have to decide pay attention in these ways.

Holy habits. A holy habit is something I choose to do regularly that restores and transforms my thinking. Romans 12:2a says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”. I am writing these notes as an expression of a holy habit. I feel the need to spend time in Bible reading, devotional reading, and prayer in the morning. I need this time for God to shape my soul and strengthen me for life in the flesh suit. I need more than this, but I definitely need this. It helps my soul to write some of it down. It also helps me to have a ‘prayer of examen’ at the end of my day (I have a blog entry on how to do this exercise). There are lots of holy habits, sometimes called spiritual disciplines. Here is a list of some examples.

The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God speaks to me when I am most willing to do what He says. The result of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me to some action ALWAYS fills my soul with what the Bible describes as the ‘fullness of God’ (Ephesians 3:19). Following the Spirit’s leading involves me becoming spiritually lighter…as in lightweight. Naturally, I am like an anvil, heavy, set in my ways. The Holy Spirit leads like a gentle wind. The anvil is unaffected. To be led by the Spirit, I have to become more like a balloon. The Spirit led me in this manner recently. I was feeling heavy. I would say that I was having a pity party, but ‘party’ implies enjoyment and there was none. I asked God for an opportunity to be led out of the morass by the Holy Spirit. It came later that day at an unexpected time and way. I went to a river to collect some rocks for an art project I am working on. I noticed a man in the parking lot who had a bicycle and small cart overloaded with bags of aluminum cans. I took my rock bag from the back of the truck and gave him a slight wave of acknowledgment as I walked past him to the river trail. He looked haggard and dirty. Deep lines were etched in his face. It was really hot out. I collected my stones, walked past him to the truck, and headed on down the road. Then it happened. I felt the Wind. “What do you want me to do Lord?” As a matter of clarity, I don’t hear the words of the Holy Spirit, I feel them, but they are specific. “Go back,” He said, “offer him something to drink and eat in My name.” “What should I say Lord?” “Tell him I have not forgotten him," So I did. It was a bit awkward at first. But I went back, rolled down my window and said, “Hey friend, can I offer you some water and snack?” He smiled a toothless grin and said, “Of course!” I told him that I was doing my best to follow Jesus and I wanted to give this to him in Jesus’ name. I told him that the Lord wanted me to tell him He had not forgotten him. I expected…I don’t know what I expected. I didn’t expect what happened. He simply looked at me calmly and spoke like he was counseling me. He said, “I know the Lord and I know He never forgets me.” You see, the message was not for Buddy (that was his name). It was for me! Buddy said, “He (God) reminds every day that He is with me. This is one of those reminders. I pick up aluminum cans (he couldn’t pronounce aluminum, it sounded like alumeeum). I will go down a road sometimes and see nothing, then something tells me to turn down another road and there are cans everywhere! That’s God. He blesses me!” I gave him what I had, a couple of bottles of water and some granola bars. He said, “This will refresh me! Thank you.” I got in my truck and drove away. Through this encounter with this simple man, God lifted me out of a pit and spoke to me. I felt my soul fill up and run over the top as tears spilled down my cheeks. The Spirit whispered to me, “You are not forgotten. You are mine and I love you. Buddy is working hard doing what he knows to do and I am taking care of him. He is grateful. You go and be more like Buddy.” God help me to be more like Buddy.

Hard experiences. Life in this world is not easy and not as it should be. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulations…”(John 16:32). Trials and sorrows are the rough-grit sandpaper, or maybe even a chisel that knocks off my soul imperfections. I don’t like trials. I do like what I have seen God bring out of them by His grace. I have experienced no-fault trials. I have experienced trials directly connected to my sin and foolishness. God brings healing and grace, regardless, when I seek it with humility. I feel the Christ-like shaping of my soul in this continual ‘going to God’ in hardship. This is not a ‘one and done’ situation. It is a continual process. I have hurts, habits, and hang-ups that need changing. My pastor said recently, “If people say they don’t have these things they’ll lie about other things too!” Every human has hurts, habits, and hang-ups. That’s why I think we need to develop holy habits, make our soul light enough to be led by the Spirit, and yield our trials continually to God. God always uses hard experiences, yielded to Him, to produce a Christ-like spirit of compassion. Staying in this process keeps me from being a judgmental, condemning person. I hope this helps you along the way and gives some encouragement that a good God hasn’t forgotten you. He speaks and He cares.

Connecting with God through Bible Study

Inductive Bible Study

“Inductive” means drawing general principles from specific examples. In other words, getting what applies to all of us from specific examples in the Bible. It is done in three steps. It helps tremendously to do this on your own and then discuss the passage in a group setting. I find it helpful to take notes in a journal under the three headings.

Step One: Observation (What does it say?)

This is simply writing down the four 'Ws": who, what, when, where, and why. My current group is studying the gospel of Luke. It is an 8 week study. We read about half a chapter a day(or natural division, usually titled in your Bible). When we are together, we choose a passage from the previous week and I simply let them respond with each of these “w’s” and we write them down.

Today’s reading is Luke 4:1-30

Step Two: Interpretation (What does it mean?)

This is boiling down the meaning/thrust of the passage from a God-ward and man-ward perspective. It is simply two sentences. This is called the central idea of the text (C.I.T.). Together, we develop a sentence about God and a sentence about people that communicate the main idea of the passage.

Step Three: Application (What does God want me to do?)

Here, we are formulating a biblical prayer focusing on two things. First, what are the promises we can claim and be grateful for? Secondly, what do we need to change (repented of)? I find it helpful to write this prayer down. In the group setting, we pray this together.

It helps when whoever is leading the discussion has studied the passage. I recommend Dr. Thomas Constable’s notes on the Bible that have been posted at www.soniclight.com in PDF.

I hope this is helpful!

Tim

What Does God Feel Like?

What does it feel like when God is present? "And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God." 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MSG

When God is present it feels like freedom. When God is a just concept, it's scary and foreboding.

How do we experience God "personally present" in our lives? The verse just before this one in 2 Corinthians 3 says this, "Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there. Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face!"

Jesus Christ came to reveal and unveil. He reveals God and unveils our misconceptions. He came to demonstrate that God is truly good, loving, kind, ready to forgive and willing to go to any length so we can have the opportunity to be with Him. In this moral universe, sin demands payment. He paid our debt. But Jesus is the consummate gentleman. He does not force His way into our lives. He does what anyone with love and compassion does, He gives people opportunity. His grace is always extended but must be received. So...when we decide that God exists and we want Him to be our God, we receive Jesus into our lives by faith. Our heart cry may be something like this, "Jesus I receive You and all you have done for me. I want you to be my Lord. I give my life to you."

The more we understand His sacrifice, the less rigid we are. Gratitude soaks into our consciousness. We are vitreous, steeping in divine grace. The more we let His life, revealed in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) shape our thinking about the nature of God, the deeper our experience of peace and freedom becomes. We see God (incarnate in Jesus)...willing to die...to give us the opportunity to live with Him forever. As we respond to this, the last verse (v. 18) becomes our reality:

"And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."

Prayer of Examen

The Ancient Prayer of Examen – Developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola

The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us.  It is designed for those who have made the decision to follow Jesus. Click here if you want to begin the journey of following Christ. The Examen is an ancient practice in the Church that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience. It is “tracing the fingerprints of God” and opening oneself up to the “scrutiny of Love” in order to overcome sins and folly by His grace. In Ignatian Spirituality, journaling the Daily Examen created a way of remembering God’s faithfulness and producing field-notes for others on the Way. I (Tim) am finding it to be a helpful discipline for my walk with my Lord. My choices during the day are affected by the realization that I will be sitting on the couch with my Father at the end of my day doing this.

Paretus - Preparation

I come to you, my Father, through the grace of Jesus Christ

Deo Gratias - God, thank you.


I thank you, God, for always being with me, but I am especially grateful that you are with me right now.

Spiritus Sancti - God, grant the Holy Spirit.
                                                                                                                          God, let the Holy Spirit enlighten my mind and warm my heart that I may know where and how we have been together this day.

Reflection - Consulo 

God, let me look at my day.
                                                                                                                                           God, where have I felt your presence, seen your face, heard your word this day?


God, where have I ignored you, run from you, perhaps even rejected you this day?

Repentance - Penantentia 
God, let me be grateful and ask forgiveness.
                               

God, I thank you for the times this day we have been together and worked together.


God, I am sorry for the ways that I have offended you. What have I done or left undone that I need forgiveness for? Please grant me the grace of Your forgiveness in these areas through Jesus Christ. 

Direction - Directio God,


God, I ask that you draw me ever closer to you this day and tomorrow.


God, you are the God of my life—I thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen

God Moving In

"I am the one who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live among them. I am the Lord their God"---Exodus 29:46
       The Old Testament is difficult to understand because we are so far removed from it culturally and chronologically. Much of the OT is descriptive not prescriptive. It is a true account of the formation history of a particular nation, Israel, and God's work through them to bring the full impetus of redemption to planet earth, in spite of Israel's numerous failings. Much of its truth is couched in the extreme barbarism of primitive culture. God is not telling us to be that culture (prescriptive), He is describing His work in spite of it. God's plan has always been to restore and redeem us by moving in. He wants to bring us out of our personal Egypt and live among us.
       I remember a picture in a Bible story book that was read to me when I was a child. It had Jesus (a rendition of Jesus that looked like He had just come from the beauty shop)...He was knocking on a door that had no handle on the outside. This concept is based on Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, "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." That picture came to mind as I read Exodus 29 today.
       Relationship is the mega-theme of the Bible. God made us to live with Him but we walked away. Instead of wiping us out, He calls, knocks, and invites. He beckons His children back into relationship with Him. You see, without Him, the human race is in a death spiral. With Him, we experience and express love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). Would anyone disagree that this is what the world needs? These are the relational attributes of God. We were made in His image: made to reflect these divine attributes. When we walked out on God, we forgot who we were. Instead of living out our divinely given identity, we adopted a corrupted identity that the Bible teaches is driven by three things: the lust of the eyes (I want to possess it), the lust of the flesh (I want to feel it), and pride of life (I want to be the center on attention). God calls us back. Mercy. He wants to move back in. Grace. He wants to rebuild our former identity through a daily relationship. Communion. Will we let God restore our identity? Jesus (God-incarnate) was the full demonstration of what we were intended to be. He knocks. He will come in and change anyone who invites Him in. He is a gentleman. 

An Older Place than Eden: by Joe Chambers

An Older Place than Eden

Posted on December 23, 2013by Joe Chambers

There is no place like home. ~~Frank Baum

 You can’t go home again. ~~Thomas C. Wolfe

Which is it?

For most of us the idea of home has a powerful gravitational pull in our emotional life and our imagination.  Home evokes deep desire that all of us share for belonging—for security.

It calls out of us a deep desire for place.     

Many feel like nomads.  They’ve moved so many times they don’t know where to call home.  This sense of “home” is absent in our lives.  I read recently that 43 million Americans move every year. That is about 16% of the population.  The average American will move 14 times in their lifetime.  I wonder what that transiency does to the soul.

People move, ostensibly, for work.  Their job takes them to different parts of the country.  Often those are choices that we make to further our careers.  And for many Americans career has usurped “place” in terms of the Summum bonum of life.  The ultimate value is my career. But I wonder if underneath our transience there is a deeper dynamic at work here.  I think for many the narrative they live by; that keeps them packing boxes and renting U-Haul’s again and again, is that after they get where they think they will find security and significance they discover that all the places are pretty much the same.

Being exiled is one of the primary images of the Bible to depict a life being lived in separation from God.  We have all been exiled east of Eden.  We are estranged from our Creator.  It is why we are profoundly restless.  We were created to be deeply at home in God’s presence, glory and love—and we have wandered away.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…  Isaiah 53:6

Sheep don’t get lost because they go on a dead run away from the Shepherd, they nibble from one clump of grass to the next until they raise their little nappy head, look around, and wonder, “Where is the Shepherd?  How can he be so cruel to abandon me?  Where is he?”

Away from the Shepherd they find themselves in a far country either by their own nibbling or from the circumstances of life—and they feel displaced.

Most people assume that the Bible presents a world view that mankind is primarily a rule-breaker and that Christianity is basically a set of rules to be kept and as long as you keep the rules you are in good standing with an irritated God.  They think that Christianity is about a list of things that must be done and a longer list of things that must NOT be done.  Sin, therefore, is rule breaking.

If the essence of sin is rule-breaking or rule-keeping then the best Christian in my home is Bella the Wonder Dog.  Because except for her pathological addiction to unguarded trash which she can’t seem to say no to, she keeps the rules better than anyone.

But the bible teaches a much more profound and sophisticated picture of what is wrong with us in this world.  It tells a story that we all were originally created to be home with God, to walk with him in the cool of the afternoon, to have an intimate fellowship with Him—but we literally nibbled our way out of His presence and hid in the underbrush and we have been homeless and homesick ever since.

We are in exile east of Eden.

“Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”~~St. Augustine

Our main problem is not that we have broken a few ancient rules or modern day social conventions, our main problem is that we were made to find our home in God and we are looking for home in all the wrong places.

But there is good news; we could have a homecoming. 

A highway shall be there,

    and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not travel on it,

    but it shall be for God’s people;

    no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  Isaiah 35:8, 10

Historically that actually happened. When the Babylonian empire fell the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland.  But, of course, as caravan after caravan arrived on the banks of the Jordan River you know that the birds didn’t begin singing and the flowers suddenly begin to blossom again.  Creation didn’t begin to dance upon their return.

Why, then, does Isaiah say this is so in such picturesque language?  Because even though they had returned to their homeland—they aren’t home yet.   They were home but they weren’t all the way home.  They got what they wanted—but it wasn’t enough.  They were still exiled from their Creator-God.  That even though they were home with their land they were yet to be home with their Lord. God has something larger in mind than a change of geographic location.  God pictures a day in which He would act in the world in such a way that the Universe itself would break forth in song.

Paul said the earth groans for the day when the King would return; Jesus said that the rocks, the very stones are willing and ready to shout praises to the King of Kings.  Isaiah is promising that a day is coming when all that is wrong is going to be put to rights.

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

We are restless, homeless, and homesick because we are exiled from God.  But, in Jesus, God brings us home again.

In fact, in Jesus, God is willing to become homeless Himself in order to bring us home. Jesus is born homeless, in a rodent-infested, damp, low-ceilinged cave of a barn and placed in a common feed trough.  He was displaced.  And soon after His birth, the family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous Herod.  Jesus lived most of his ministry without a home.

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head.          Luke 9:58

…Jesus also suffered outside the city gate…  Hebrews 13:12 (NRSV)

Jesus died outside of the city, away from hearth and home; away from family and friends. He died alone far away from Nazareth but even further away from Heaven.  God became homeless so we could come home.  Jesus became exiled so we could have a homecoming.

The House of Christmas

By G.K. Chesterton

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam;

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost – how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky’s dome.

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.

We are all limping our way back home to God, you might consider joining us on the road and limp along with us.  We won’t always limp.  When we get home we will dance.  And the joy of the Lord will be our strength.

Heaven in Human Space

Heaven in Human Space
(the springboard for these thoughts is "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard)

There are three heavens mentioned in the Bible (2 Corinthians 12:2).

1^st heaven – earthly environment in which we “live and breathe” (Acts 17:27-28)

2^nd heaven – the physical “above us” from atmosphere to galaxies (Genesis 1:1)

3^rd heaven – the home of God and every redeemed soul (John 14:2-3)

Acts 17:27 says “in Him we live and move and have our being”

God is all around us. We live in His presence. But what kind of God? Is it a god who loves us through gritted teeth? Or is it God our Savior who loves us joyfully and completely (John 15:11)? What is our view of God?

Adam Clarke defined God this way (plow through this thoughtfully and carefully):

“The eternal, independent, self-existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motive or influence; He who is resolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences, infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that He has made; illimitable in His immensity, inconceivable in His mode of existence, and indescribable in His essence; known fully only by Himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from His infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, and right, and kind.”

This definition is arrived at through a careful study of the position of Jesus on the subject of God. Jesus simply operated from this orientation. 

Imagine how different life would be if we simply walked through our day conscious of THIS God all around us. Imagine every action, slightest thought, or inclination motivated by this reality. That is living in God’s kingdom. How safe and secure would life be living in this kingdom consciousness. Jesus, in Matthew 6 taught from this frame of reference saying, “Don’t worry about anything that is going to happen to you: about what you will eat or drink, about what clothes to wear. Your life does not consist of eating, and there is much more to your body than clothing. Take a lesson from the birds of heaven (meaning the 'first' heaven: flying around in the presence of God). They don’t sow or reap or hoard away in granaries, and your Father-in the heavens around you-sees to it that they have food. Aren’t you more important than birds? Who can change their physical features by worrying about them? And as for worrying about clothes, well, look at the little flowers of the fields. They just pop right up! They don’t slave away getting or making clothes. But King Solomon in his best outfit was not as glorious as one of these. Now if God so adorns the wild grasses-which are here for today and the next day are burned for fuel-won’t He do even better by you? You of little faith!

            So don’t worry about things, saying, “What are we going to eat?” or “What will we wear?” (People who don’t know God at all do that!) For your Father-the One in the heavens around you-knows you need these things. Instead, make it your top priority to be a part of what God is doing and to have the kind of goodness He has. Everything else you need will be provided.

            Tomorrow? Don’t worry about it. You can do your worrying about tomorrow tomorrow. And anyway, enough will happen today to keep you in things to worry about until bedtime.”Matthew 6:25-34 Msg

God is. I will live in Him today. I will attempt to join Him in what He is doing. I will do this by faith, not worrying about the future. “Yard by yard life is hard. Inch by inch, life is a cinch.”