Will You Hear Me Now?

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

James 1:19-20 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and saying all the usual things at those White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed his big smile and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” People would automatically respond with comments such as “How lovely.” or “Continue on with your great work.” Nobody listened to what he was saying, except for one foreign diplomat. When the president said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning,” the diplomat responded softly, “I’m sure she had it coming to her.”

It’s a funny story, but how often do we do the same? It seems that we have much to say but we are not very good at listening. There is such a lack of good listening skills in this day and age that we have to pay someone a lot of money just to listen to us!

I once had a friend that was notorious for looking around the entire time we were conversing. It was as if she was looking for someone else to entertain her, she was not plugged into the conversation with anything more than her body standing in close proximity. Not the stuff good communication is made of. Notice I said “I once had a friend…”

It seems to me, we have potential for great conflict, confusion and chaos when the powerful tongue and careless ears clash. We’ve all had those moments when we think we’re carrying on a conversation with someone only to discover to our dismay that their ears appear to be coated with Teflon and our words are sliding into a puddle next to them. OR when we think we have concisely expressed our thoughts and/or emotion but the other person heard them through a filter of emotional baggage and all original intent is lost. You end up debating something that wasn’t even on the agenda and both parties end up angry and frustrated. I refer you once again to the Scripture above.

Good communication is not accidental. Everyone wants to know they are truly being heard, that their thoughts and opinions matter. It is only possible when people are plugged in and using their tongues and ears with deliberate purpose and intent. Nothing says, “You don’t count and are not important to me” more than sloughing off someone’s attempt to communicate with you by not truly listening. When you are busy coming up with a response in your head, you are not truly listening. When you jump in and talk over someone, you are not truly listening. When you hear pain in someone’s words and voice, yet neglect to acknowledge them, you are not truly listening.

I believe the ear is just as powerful as the tongue. It, too, has the power of life or death over communication which determines the quality of relationships in our journey of life. Good communication is like a six lane highway where poor communication is a neglected gravel road full of potholes. You can travel on either but the journey is vastly different.

More importantly, God has many things He desires to reveal to us — but we’re always talking, asking, and negotiating. We can’t listen to the voice of God if we’re always talking. Let’s strive to do less talking and more listening today. Let’s give the Lord and others a chance to be heard.

Fan the Flames

1 Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

As you may or may not know, we’ve initiated a new phase of ministry here at Truth. It would be more accurate, I suppose, to say we have refocused and returned to walk out the vision the Lord gave us ten years ago for Truth in Love World Ministries. After a hiatus to rear grandchildren, we are gearing back up and fanning the flames of the vision. It simmered far too long.

We served in various capacities in that time, this blog for instance is written and sent out because God laid it on my heart and allows me to use the gift of writing He gave in His service. There are days, times and/or seasons I do not ‘feel’ like getting up and sitting at the computer in the dark before dawn but I do because He has been so faithful to me. Sometimes I’ve felt like I have been nothing more than an ‘observer’ of my own life watching years march by as I waited for the time to reclaim the vision and answer that call. Sometimes it felt like disobedience on my part to sit back giving my time and energies to something else. Sometimes I wallowed around in my justifications to try to make myself feel better about the vision being on the back burner. That rarely made me feel better and it certainly didn’t fool God. I’ve had well meaning friends tell me my distress over not pursuing the vision was misguided because I was serving Him in other ways. Obedience delayed is disobedience…you just can’t ‘pretty’ that up.

Don’t settle for what the Lord has already accomplished through you. Yes, it’s always nice to be reminded of how God has already used you – but never lose sight of what He still wants to do with you in the future, and how He may want to build upon what He has already done in the past.

“Where there is no vision the people perish” [Proverbs 29:18].

Has the Lord given you a vision? Has He given you an assignment to accomplish? Now is the time to lay hold of that vision and continue to fulfill your calling. It may not happen as you planned or expected. Rarely can we even begin to see our puny plans in the shadow of the bigger plans of God. Our finite minds cannot grasp His ‘big picture’. 

In my mind’s eye, I’ve always pictured God’s plan as a massive woven tapestry that plays out the scenes of eternity. We are but a tiny piece of thread in that tapestry. I do not know what color my piece of thread is, much less how it fits in His big picture but I do know that I am in that picture because He chose me to be. If He took the time to create me and determine my place in His plan, who am I to turn my back on any vision He gave me to walk out?

So I encourage you, Friends, to renew your vision of His will for your life, for your future. Turn up the heat of the passion for that vision to a rolling boil. Do not be satisfied with lukewarm past actions or deeds but settle for nothing less than fire for the vision.

Revelations 3:15-16 says: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Fan the flames of the vision the Lord laid on you and jump in!

Seasons of Life

For more years than I choose to count, I have watched PBS cooking, gardening and home improvement shows. I’ve learned much over the years and enjoy them still. America’s Test Kitchen’s Christopher Kimble writes a newsletter I receive called ‘Letter from Vermont’. It’s full of antidotes about life in rural Vermont. As I shared with my husband this morning, I have always fancied Vermont to be a magical place with glorious fall colors, snowy picturesque winters and down to earth, no nonsense people. I want to go there to see for myself.

The April newsletter hit my email IN box this morning and it made me smile, always does. The last paragraph piqued my mind’s eye as I saw life depicted in seasons. Here it is:  

Mud season is upon us and the weather has turned quite warm all of a sudden. I see people drinking coffee at the country store who look like they have been in hibernation for six months: hair tousled, clothes rumpled, with thick, scratchy beards and sleepy, wild eyes. That's the beauty of the country life. We go through a dark, sleepy winter, then we boil sap, drive through mud season, enjoy the rushing brooks and the first days of fishing, hay in the hot summer sun, and get ready for hunting season in September. Then we enjoy the fall—the foliage, bow season, cider making, and rifle season—ending with Thanksgiving and black powder week. Christmas comes soon after, and then we get the beagles ready for three months of running rabbits. Our root cellars are bare, the snow is melting, and it's time to hide Easter eggs once again.

I loved the life described by seasons...just like Scripture.

Ecclesiastes 3 A Time for Everything

 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--
    A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
    A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
    A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.
    A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
    A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away.
    A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak.
    A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.

 What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

I find great comfort in knowing that God made provisions for everything. No matter what ‘season’ in life you or I may be in now, there is another one on the way. A counter balance, so to speak. For we will cry tears and we will laugh. We will mourn and we will dance. We will plant and we will uproot. He’s covered it all and nothing last for more than its season. Good news is they are renewable. I’m feeling very positive this morning about my seasons. I am convinced we need be determined to appreciate each one as it comes. After all, the final line of that passage of scripture says: I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.  That’s my plan…occupy myself serving Him through all the seasons of my life until He calls me Home. Travel to Vermont not required, just desired. Enjoy your season today.

Desert Experience Ahead - Proceed in Anticipation

Isaiah 43:18-21 (Amplified Bible)

    Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, the people I formed for Myself, that they may set forth My praise.

It is among popular “Christian” belief that an abundance of material and other blessings follow those whose hearts are truly after God and that those who seem to consistently struggle to that end, cannot possibly be in God’s perfect will. I think we might have it all backwards.

Almost all the great men of faith I’ve read about in the Bible had to spend some time in the wilderness. Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, just to name a few. God had to make them desperate. He had to cause them to be quiet and undistracted enough to hear His still, small voice. He had to make them hungry and thirsty enough to cry out for a miracle.

Interestingly, the word for wilderness, in Hebrew, is “meed-bahr”. And meed-bahr comes from the word “leh-da-behr”, which means to speak. Hmmm. Jesus had a 40 day wilderness experience, Himself. What better place, away from the crowds and noise of mankind, to have a focused conversation with God.

Some of us are walking through the desert right now. It’s hot by day — there is only rugged, thorny, sandy terrain for miles and miles and there seems no end. It seems looking in any direction we see no relief from the assault of the heat of our burdens. By night, the wind is unbearably cold and we stumble over things we can barely see. Snakes and scorpions live here. It seems like a lonely place.

Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. It is easy to remember ‘the good old days’ when we are in the midst of our desert experience. The people of Israel considered their years as slaves better than their desert hike. When we are always looking backward, we are not watching in anticipation for God’s work ahead. Behold, I am doing a new thing!  

The desert is actually a place of blessing! Not the conventional kind of material wealth, certainly, but it is for our growth, and ultimately for our prosperity that God has brought us here! Like it or not, the wilderness is where He can speak to us most effectively. It is the place He can most easily get our attention. It is the place we will cry out to God and truly listen for His voice.

Know that God is with you today! He is walking along with us through this wilderness and longing to comfort us. If we would only cry out to Him and heed His voice. The Promised Land awaits. Give Him praise!

“… because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, the people I formed for Myself, that they may set forth My praise…”

A Tap in the Night

'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; Acts 2:17

If you read this blog with regularity, you know I often mention the ‘holy taps’ on the shoulder I get from God when He points out a lesson He would have me share. Last night, it came in a dream. I am confident it was from God because the holy tap came with it; waking me just enough to make it known this was to be for this morning’s post. I love hearing God speak to me through the Holy Spirit and using me to share.

The dream was about a football helmet. I know, sounds ‘out there’ but remember, He had me use clarified butter for an analogy a few years ago. I’m not a huge football fan; this isn’t something I would be pondering in my subconscious. I’ve learned not to question it, just let Him take it where ever He pleases.

In the dream, the football helmet was lit up as if a spot light shone on it. It was being worn by a player in the game but this player, like the others, was not the focus. It was the helmet. Helmet of Salvation? Perhaps. I could see in the dream that this helmet was a source of protection as the player was tackled over and over, sometimes ending up at the bottom of a dog pile. It amazed me see the brutal punishment this player was able to withstand because of the helmet.

What saddened me was to see the injuries he sustained under the helmet. His mind was confused by the constant blows to the head. He was disoriented and stumbled about as he stood time and time again, blow after blow. I wanted to cry, I abhor violence and it seemed this player was taking a beating. Blood trickled down his face from under the helmet. Still, he played on.

At one point it seemed the helmet grew larger and you could better see the injuries under the helmet. It wasn’t that they were large, just that there were so many!

So, this morning I asked the Lord to revel to me the meaning of the dream. I ‘felt’ the Holy Spirit show me that the other players in the game are the forces in the world that come against us time after time. The helmet was his faith that protected him when he took those blows over and over. His ‘faith’ helmet grew as he played on, increasing faith. The smaller injuries under the helmet were injuries caused by others under the faith, the Church. Though they seemed small, they were numerous. My spirit was quickened as this was revealed to me. It is true; people in the church hurt one another. The injuries may be hidden under the helmet of faith but they are there. I smiled when I realized that no matter where they come from, attacks on us cause pain, confusion and injury. But, like the player, we can keep getting up and play on because, we, too, are covered by THE BLOOD.