Hearing God

While even many Christians profess that they cannot hear God, God is speaking and once we learn how He speaks we find that we have been hearing all along.  Even those who do not see themselves as people of faith often have had experiences of hearing Him in some form or fashion.  Once they are awakened to His reality, they realize just how much He has been with them before they even knew Him.

God has always been a relational God. The Trinity is proof of this. God is all about having intimate community and that involves communication.  When He created the first couple, He spent time walking with them in the cool of the evening through the Garden of Eden.  This was the ideal to have His creation have personal communion with Him.  When sin entered the world it became difficult for us to hear Him.  Our connection was no longer pure and unbridled by the bondage of sin.

Now, for most, our hearing is faulty and we do not perceive well the voice of the Lord.  However, the good news is that He is the way back to that communion with Him.  Jesus did the work necessary to redeem what was lost and open up the communication again.  When we live in relationship with Him we learn His voice just as a baby learns his parent’s voice and can distinguish it from others.  Just the same, we learn the sound of our Father’s voice.  The more time we spend with Him the more fine tuned our hearing gets.

God is speaking to each of us to come near and receive His grace and love.  He is also speaking to help direct our path to the good path.  We do have a responsibility to listen.  He doesn’t make us listen.  Sometimes people will hear of the rare story where God really jolted their hearing to realize that He was talking.  But most the time it is a partnership of relationship.  To hear without the relationship would not usually be beneficial to us.  The greater the relationship grows the greater He can trust us with what He wants to say. 

Just like a little child cannot learn all the wisdom from his parents while he is learning to walk, but as he masters walking, talking, and takes on more and more responsibility of being alive the more he can be trusted with the wisdom of living.  The key is not to blame God or ourselves for not hearing.  Blame was dealt with once and for all at the Cross.  Blame need not be shouldered upon ourselves; we just simply need to start today afresh.  Start today spending time with Jesus.  Start today listening. 

Listen not with your natural ears, but with your spirit.  Listen with your heart. What is He saying? Don’t try to see a vision, or hear audible sounds. Just wait and reflect quietly upon Him.  Ask the Holy Spirit to come and wash you in His love.  Just sit, listen on the inside.   You may not hear right now while you sit, but that time spent will be instrumental in hearing later when you least expect it.  You may be in the shower or writing a composition and suddenly knowledge will fill you that you know is coming from an external source right into your being.  Listen and then write it down.  This helps you to later remember God is speaking to you.  Don’t try to hear, just rest and His presence will carry to you His words for you.  He is speaking, just rest in Him and listen.  

2012

The world has experienced many ends since its birth, 2012 is no different.  Many life cycles have swept the world for a time. They meet their death and a new cycle, a new season is born.  For new life to come, the old must pass away to give way to it. 

The old that passes is not all that exists, but all that exist in an old paradigm.  The things that end are the things that are out of alignment with the new season.  It’s like a spiritual surgery of culture, systems, and people.  However, there will be those who hold on to the old and prevent the new from affecting their lives. They will not experience the ending and this will not be healthy for them as the new will be out of their reach as it will be beyond their sight. 

The cessation of the Mayan calendar in December 2012 need not be seen as the end of time, but the end of a time.  They could not see beyond into the coming years because something so fresh, something so new, something so amazing was coming.   The world needed to have an awakening to the coming of this end and beginning, thus, the calendar stopped with no explanation.  This created a world that is watching. 

It is possible the season would pass us by otherwise.  But yet we watch, wait, anticipate, and talk amongst ourselves of what awaits humanity.  This is not a time for panic, but a time for reflection and foresight to align oneself with what is being released in the new season. 

With any birth comes pain. Labor is involved. Preparation is involved. Holding fast to that hope of the new that is coming will help align ourselves with the forward season rather than allowing fear to keep us bound to the dying season. 

For those who are already seeing what is coming they can begin to walk in it now.  Others will do a fast adjustment and have a premature birth into the new.  This will cause some difficulties in transition, but the transition will come though they will have more growing to do on the other side than others.  Still others will be still born always living like the change never happened. The only affect of this change upon them will be negative rather than positive because it goes against their positioning instead of them riding its positioning. 

2012 does bring an end, but a good end. The change is already in the air.  It will not be the end of the physical world or of humanity.  But it will be an end of an age and the beginning of a new age for the world.  This is something to celebrate rather than to fear.  Good things are coming for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.  

Revisiting Moral Subjectivity and Absolutism

Arguments pertaining to moral subjectivism or absolutism are difficult to navigate.  Both positions have elements of truth weaved throughout to such a degree that is difficult for some to pick one.  Others hold fast to one ideal or the other without ever conceding any validity to the other position. 

Any conceived idea always has an element of truth. Some are closer to what is real than others, but each have a truth mixed into the concept.  Approaching the topic with this in mind one can navigate the waters of moral philosophy with greater ability to perceive a more accurate perspective on the matter. 

The extremes always lend themselves to showing their flaws.  On one extreme is the moral subjectivist who maintains with absolute certainty that morality is one hundred percent subjective. This position is usually maintained by those who believe it is impossible to know anything for certain from any external compass and therefore it is imperative to be certain that we cannot know anything for certain.  The philosophical trappings are apparent. 

Notwithstanding, the tendency to discount the entire proposed philosophy due to this error of extremes does an injustice to the topic.  Many throw out the baby with the bath water and refuse to allow any acceptance of subjective morality. 

Read the rest of the article at Helium.com by clicking HERE.

Link to Article by Paul Copan

God of Love & Old Testament Killings

Check out the above link. I've never heard this before, it's a fascinating theory.

Love: The Highest Virtue

American culture has a high regard for practicing tolerance.  This shows a shift in culture. In part that shift brings a cultural freedom to allow people to be themselves without fear of being discriminated against.  Of course, we, as a culture, haven’t reached that ideal, but it is rapidly becoming a social norm. 

In the past, people still did the things that were not socially acceptable for whatever reason, but did them in secret.  Somehow we thought this preferable because we can ignore what we didn’t approve of and go on our merry way.  Now a new wave of cultural tolerance continues to take shape.  Enough time has not passed to see what the affects will be on society. 

C.S. Lewis once commented that church attendance at Oxford had been compulsory. He preferred the change of it not being mandatory, because now people could be themselves and not pretend to be something they didn’t want to be because society demanded it.  He said the former was helping no one, and the later created conditions for real change for the right reasons. 

A shift is happening in the Church as well.  Not in all churches, but in the environment of many churches across the nation and globally.  This shift can look like tolerance to the untrained eye, but there is something deeper something more life changing in this shift.  It’s a shift of love and freedom. 

A culture of freedom is being issued forth within some key international ministries.  This freedom is one that wants people to be who they are without fear of punishment, ostracizing, or discrimination. It is a freedom that loves enough to not require people to hide their junk.  This is accomplished through love. 

Perfect love cast out all fear.  Love is a value that is higher than the value of tolerance and requires more of the giver than tolerance.  However, true love is not something you have to work up for people it is something we acquire from experiencing God’s love.  Our heart gets filled up with His supernatural love and it pours out to people.  That love doesn’t expect people to hide their junk.  It also rejoices in the truth.  It doesn’t call bad good to make a person feel better, but it also doesn’t point out the faults of others.  It points out the truth about the real you. 

In contrast, tolerance leaves people in their bondage by celebrating it with them. It says, not only do I have no right to call anything you do wrong, I think it is totally awesome that you do what you do and I hope you keep it up and that you never listen to anyone that says it isn’t right. 

Love says I’ll be your friend no matter what your hang ups are. It quietly waits until the person wants to be free from those hang ups and asks how that could happen.  All the while, love speaks out the truth about that person. Love releases kindness, compassion, and peace to that person. Love builds them up, rather than tearing them down. Love makes their heart fly.  Love gently cuts the ropes that bind them.

It points out how special a person is. How good they are. How delightful they are to the Kingdom of God and how much God loves them.  It doesn’t rejoice in their faults, or tell them all about how much they messed up. It rejoices in who God made them to be and helps by coming along side them and walking out that true life moment by moment. 

There are times when rebukes, justice, punitive actions, have a place, but these would be few and far between in a culture of freedom and love.  These would be akin to the rare times a child would need a spanking rather than the predominate response to the junk in the lives of those living in our community or in relationship with us. 

Tolerance has been a response society has vied for in contrast to the religious legalism that was once predominating in America.  Now such people are looked at as fundamental fanatics are not seen in a good light by most anybody.  This is a good shift. There was an error in the response of the Church to people in and outside of church community that caused society at large to take measures contrary to that sentiment. 

The Church should have been the one to lead this charge of the way of love rather than needing a movement of tolerance.  I apologize on behalf of the Church for the necessity of a tolerance movement.  If we had been practicing love, there would have been no need for this.  I am excited to see and be a part of the shift that is happening in the Church to build a culture of freedom, honor, and love that will not only change churches and ministries across the globe, but the home and marketplace as well.  Great things are coming.  

Back to Basics

I have never paid too much attention to my handwriting. In recent years it is more of a hybrid of cursive and print.  Last night, I was helping my 7 year old niece with her homework.  She had to write two sentences and I was writing down the words for her to copy as she developed the sentences.  She found the formation of my letters to be lacking and proceeded to correct my sentences before copying them onto her page.  Although my “t” was shorter than a capitol letter she demonstrated to me that a lower case “t” should not have the horizontal line at the very top of the vertical line.  I attempted explaining to her that once one had the basics down of writing her letters that there was a creative freedom for developing your own style.  She didn’t buy that. 

My thoughts have returned to last night’s conversation several times this morning.  Handwriting is like riding a bike or driving a car, you don’t think much about it after learning it.  We rarely revisit the basic mechanics of how we do something that we do frequently after it is learned.  Even how we think is often just done, not thought about.

In contrast, my nephew struggles in reading. The school has placed him in summer school for reading, tutoring for reading, and other reading classes without ever going back to the basics. When asked, he tells me the reading teacher reads to him. Or they set up a computer for him that reads to him as he reads along.  Instead of taking him back to start fresh with a foundational course of phonics, he is expected to start reading by being read to.  

I think it is good, every so often, to go back to the basics.  Then we can rebuild on a refreshed foundation.  We can find the simplistic again and reduce the complexity in our lives.  We can also find creative expression by starting fresh.  It’s easier to be creative with a new sketch book and brand new box of crowns than it is trying to find a fresh page and work with dull crowns.

I think this week I will reexamine things that are often second nature and intentionally practice or make note of the simple basics.   

Kingdom Freedom

Everyone wants to be free. America was born on the shared value of freedom that ran deep in the hearts of the first patriots and Founders.  Most every nation in the world desires the freedom found between our shores.  A grassroots rally cry has been sounded in recent months for a return to greater levels of freedom while rejecting current policies that would restrict freedom. 

The Founders, and the philosophers that influenced them, had a very unique idea to build a nation where the people would be free.  Thus, they set out to build a limited government by the people and for the people.  A government that would not be the granter of freedom, but it's most ardent protector for this government would be elected and held accountable by the people. 

The Founding Fathers were very clear in their thoughts concerning the nature of such a free people. They encouraged, with great enthusiasm and urgency, that the education of the people always include instruction from the Christian Bible.  Now, in these days there were no public schools. There was no Department of Education. There were only community schools usually tied into the local church that shared the one room school house facility.  There were also home schooling and private tutoring depending on ones economic status. 

The Founders view on this is evidenced by these quotations by James Madison:

“It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.” 

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

The Founders saw it as instrumental to securing a free nation that the citizens of this nation govern themselves.  The only way they could be free, is if they did not need a governing authority to make laws guarding their conduct.  Thus they frequently wrote that people be instructed in Biblical morality and to make that and the law of nature (what they saw as the unwritten laws known in our conscious)  our external guide to maintaining our liberty.  In their opinion, if we behaved ourselves we would have little need of the government keeping us in order by excessive laws and punishments.

However, as good as this plan is it stopped short of the freedom that is available to people.  The Founders way would ensure a great deal of freedom never before established on a national level to this magnitude. They took it as far as it could logically go at the level in which they were speaking about it. 

To Read More Follow the LInk To My Helium Article

The Bible

The Bible is not THE Truth. How’s that for an opening statement? Let me explain, before some get upset and others get excited that I’ve finally seen the light.

The Bible is not, by itself, the essence of Truth. It is only bound paper with words on the pages that speaks of something greater than itself. When people believe that its words are the highest revelation of Truth they hold them so high that God and their neighbors come second to the words and the readers’ interpretation of them. Even in the day of Jesus, this was happening with the Torah. Jesus told them, “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you will find life, but it is I who these Scriptures are speaking about.”

Jesus is the One who is the full presence of Truth. It is He, not the Scriptures about Him that is life. Some may argue that the way we know what is true about Him is via the Scriptures that speak about who He is. However, this is not fully correct. It is true that the Scriptures are valuable and have an important role in revealing truth. The Bible does tell us true things, but it points beyond itself to the Truth itself which is not itself.

The Bible does tell us many things about Jesus, but a book illustrating a few years of His life, teachings, miracles, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension does little for us if we do not connect tangibly with the One it speaks about. The Bible is there to draw us away from natural earthly existence to open our awareness of Someone who can open our heart and spirit to a new world; a world we where we were always meant to have access.

The Bible does tell us true things about history, living, the future, and God Himself. But it was never meant to be idolized and revered over God Himself. This is why the words of Scripture without the Spirit of the Lord can be death rather than life. This is why someone can quote a Scripture that is supposed to be full of life and love and it feel like venom.

The Bible says that man without the Spirit cannot understand things that are spiritually discerned. There is a veil of sorts upon the wisdom of Scripture that only becomes unlocked when seen through ones relationship with Jesus. The Kingdom of God is then revealed and able to be experienced and released in a way that does bring life and love to others.

However, if people could access these things without the Spirit of God they would not be in a place where the things they find would help anyone because without the Spirit it would all be corrupt and damaging to the person and the world around them. Just the same, there is an understanding that comes from reading things at face value that can lead one to the path that unlocks the deeper understanding.

Sometimes, even believers, live from a place of naturally reading Scripture and by their own power and strength trying to live it out and that usually ends up hurting themselves and other people.

The Kingdom of God cannot be lived out by natural strength. It is impossible. Only by being in relationship with God, experiencing His Spirit, and in turn His power and love can the Kingdom of God be demonstrated. When this is happening the deaf hear, the blind see, the dead come to life, the crippled walk, and the love of God is experienced. When this happens people can speak and release peace to calm storms or freedom from bondages. Emotional wounds are healed. Dreams are realized and achieved. Heaven becomes a place on earth when a community of believers walks out the supernatural Kingdom of God in their lives.

My Thoughts On Mosque At Ground Zero Controversy

Until yesterday I had not really been paying much attention to the Mosque being built at Ground Zero controversy. I knew it was in the works. I had thoughts about it, but did not realize the scope of the details concerning it.

My primary thought was that the same rights that protect any religion from building anything protected them as well and to forbid one risks forbidding all. However, I now see that there is more to the story.

Apparently, according to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, it is possible that funding for this project is coming from terrorist groups in the Middle East. Moreover, New York officials have asked in an effort to promote healing and good will for the Imam to come to the negotiation table regarding the placement of this Mosque. The request has been met with silence.

Moreover, this Imam stated in a 60 Minutes interview that while he could not say that America was responsible for the events of 9/11, we were an accessory to the tragedy. On Sean Hannity’s show, last night, Giuliani and the Attorney General of New York expressed great concern about this project continuing at the designated location.

They agreed that unless there was proof of illegal activity in the funding of this building that it was well within their rights. However, just because you have the right to do something legally, it doesn’t make it ethically right. Respect for the families who lost people on that infamous day ought to lend to renegotiation of the location of this building.

Just the same, the actions of one Imam and those associated with him, ought not cause anger towards other Muslim people who would not think of trying to build there. Giuliani even said, if it was any other Muslim group from the many who have Mosques in New York, he would not be as concerned. There seems to be something peculiar in the spirit behind this choice that has Americans across the political spectrum quiet disturbed.

At the same time, Jesus said to love your enemy and to do good to those who persecute you. So if this is a strategic placement to further unsettle Americans, then while there is a place for publicly expressing our dismay and, for some, even anger, there is also a greater place to do so with respect and love. That does seem to be the ultimate paradox, to love your enemy and to do good to those who do wrong to you. What would that look like in this situation? How does a nation, not just an individual, practice this wisely?

Note To Readers

I have been busy writing, just not here on my blog. I have been working to increase my articles at Helium.com as well as polishing some writing for other potential publishing.

I have also been busy caring for my niece and nephews while my sister-in-law works. My husband and I enjoy having the three of them over several nights a week. It’s been a learning experience, and a lot of fun including a trip the zoo, the beach, and the movies.

Needless to say, my blog writing time has been suffering. As I do not have a topic in mind to write about, I thought I would just give a life update explaining my silence.

Feel free to visit my Helium link for my recent articles, although the majority of them are written in the Christian channel to a Christian audience. Still you may find some of interest. I have about 230 articles to choose from dating back two years.

As soon as I finish one of the several books I am reading I will do a book review. I think I picked too many intellectual books to read at once. One is a fictional dialog between Kant and Socrates, one explores mythologies of the world, and one is of a theological nature. Just the same, I should be posting here again soon.