Category: Lessons from the Lord

Excellent Youth Sermon—must-hear!

valuesdr

We’re in a Yahoo Group along with many wonderful Christian authors, including Marilyn Rockett, author of the very practical and encouraging Homeschooling at the Speed of Life. I was just poking around in my archive of saved emails (looking for something that I couldn’t find!) and I noticed an email to the Group from Marilyn that so impacted me at the time (way back in March) that I saved it to re-visit. Well, the Lord brought it to my attention today, so I thought–might as well post it to the blog!

Marilyn shared a link to a sermon on Youth by Paul Washer, but its content is relevant (and convicting) to all who call themselves Christians. The sermon can be heard via this link, or you can view the transcription in .PDF here. Otherwise, read the more powerful points pasted below.

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I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is that, if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You will not find that in any place in Scripture. You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ. And faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance . . . a turning away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears, not to be like the world, and not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ! [The audiencethen erupts in applause].

I don’t know why you’re clapping. I’m talking about you. I didn’t come here to get amens. I didn’t come here to be applauded. I’m talking about you.

People so many times come up to me and say, “Oh, I’d love to follow you into Romania”; “I’d love to follow you into the Ukraine”; “I’d love to preach where you preached and planted churches in Peru in the jungle.”

And I tell them, “No, you wouldn’t.”

They say, “Yes, I would.”

I say, “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because you’d be excommunicated from the church down there.”

What we need to see . . . I’m not trying to be hard for the sake of being hard. Do you realize how much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American Christianity is almost totally wrong? Do you knowwhat it’s going to cost me to never be asked back again to something like this? To be unpopular? Do you know why you do it? You don’t do it because you get paid well. You don’t do it because men love you. You do it because you love men and because, more than that, you want to honor God.

I want to tell you something. We’re going to go into Scripture, and I want you to look at it as it really is. It’s not comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians. Compare yourself to the Scripture. When someone, a young person, comes to a pastor or a youth minister and says,“I’m not sure whether or not I’m saved,” the youth minister will usually throw out a cliché: “Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart?”

“Well, yes.”

“Were you sincere?”

“Well, I don’t know, but I think so.”

“Well, you need to tell Satan to stop bothering you. Did you write it in the back of your book…the back of your Bible like the evangelist told you when you got saved, write down the date so that any time you doubted you could point him to the Bible?”

What superstition has overcome our denomination? Do you know what the Bible tells Christians to do? Examine yourself. Test yourself in light of Scripture to see if you are in the faith. Test yourself to see if you’re a Christian.”. . . . .

Now, we as Southern Baptists preach that you’re supposed to go through that one and only gate which is Jesus Christ. But we as Southern Baptists have forgotten something. And I want youth ministers and pastors and everyone to listen to me, parents, we have forgotten a very important teaching in the Gospel. It says that, not only the gate is narrow, it says the path is narrow. What we basically do is lead someone to Christ, lead someone in a prayer and then they spend the rest of their life living just like the world, and if you deny me on this, I can bring the statistics to prove you wrong. Gallup poll, Barnard [sic; Barna] polls, every kind of poll you can possibly look at,when it questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of those who claim to be lost in America, the polls find no difference. Now that is statistics. It has nothing to do with religious interpretation. Those are statistics.

Book after book is being churned out by theologian and philosopher and sociologist alike. What has happened to the church? We find out that abortion in the church is just as prevalent as outside in the world. We find that divorce is just as prevalent. We find that immorality . . . you know as well as I do, there are youth here right now who are practicing immoralityand yet worshiping God in the same breath. You know there are youth here that are doing drugs and yet coming to youth group. You know, watching and doing things that are not appropriate for a Christian, and yet they’re coming to the youth group, believing themselves satisfied, believing themselves saved, and no one is saying anything except this: They’re carnal Christians. They’re really Christians; they’re just carnal. That was a doctrine that started in a Baptist seminary, that is not a Southern Baptist seminary, several decades ago. It is not biblical and it is not historical. My dear friend, there is no such thing as a carnal Christian.. . . . .

But if you profess to have gone through the narrow gate, but yet you live in the broad way, just like all the other people in your high school, just like all the other people who are carnal and wicked, the Bible wants you to know that you should be terribly, terribly afraid because you know not God. I fear men who have spent most of their life telling other men that they are saved. I fear you if you’ve done that. You don’t tell men they are saved; you tell men how to be saved. God tells them they are saved. What we have forgotten to believe is that salvation is a supernatural work of God, and those who have genuinely been converted, regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit is going to be a new creature. The Bible says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. So we find out here in Scripture that there is a narrow gate and a narrow way.. . . . .

What is the sign that someone has become a genuine Christian? I wish that we would start teaching this again. What happened to our theology? What happened to our doctrine? What happened to our teaching? It went right out the window. No one wants to study doctrine anymore. They just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian tee shirts. What happened to truth? Truth tells you this. The evidence––the way that you can have assurance that you are genuinely a born-again Christian––is that you do, as a style of life, the will of the Father. You say, “Oh, you’re talking about works.” No, I’m not. I’m talking about evidence of faith, and it goes like this. Your profession of faith is no proof that you’re born again because everybody in this whole countryprofesses faith in Jesus Christ. Barna tells us that 65 to 70 percent of all Americans are saved, born-again Christians. The most Godless country on the face of the earth. Kill 4,000 babies a day but, bless God, 70 percent of us are born again.

How do you know that the faith you have is not false? A style of life that is concerned about doing the will of the Father, that practices the will of the Father, and when you disobey the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you either personally through the written Word of God or through a brother or sister in Christ, and God puts you back on the path again. If you’re agenuine Christian, you cannot escape Him.. . . . .

I want you to know something. God is not a derelict father. If you can play around in sin, if you can love the world and love the things of the world, if you can always be involved in the world and doing things of the world, if your heroes are worldly people, if you want to look like them and act likethem, if you practice the same things they practice, oh my dear friend, listen to my voice. There’s a good chance you know not God, and you do not belong to him.. . . . .

You say the most important thing on the face of the earth is to know Jesus Christ. That is not true. The most important thing on the face of the earth is that Jesus Christ knows you. I’m not going to get into the White House tomorrow because I walk up to the gate and tell everybody I know George Bush, but they will let me in if George Bush comes out and says, “I know Paul Washer.”. . . . .

There are two ways. There’s a narrow way and a broad way. Which one are you on? There are two types of trees. There is a good tree that bears good fruit, and it’s going to Heaven. There’s a bad tree and you know it’s bad because it bears bad fruit, and it’s going to hell. It’s going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. There are those who profess Jesus is Lord and they do the will of the Father who is in heaven, and there are those who profess Jesus Christ is Lord and they do not do the will of the Father who is in heaven, and they go to hell––not because of a lack of works, but because of a lack of faith demonstrated by the fact that they had no works.. . . . .

We talk so much about being radical Christians. Radical Christians are not people who jump at concerts. Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian tee shirts. Radical Christians are those who bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Radical Christians are those who reverence and honor their parents even when they feel like their parents are wrong. Radical Christians are those who do not––now listen to me. This is going to make you mad, and I’m talking to boys and girls. Radical Christians are those who do not dress sensually in order to show off their bodies. If your clothing is a frame for your face, God is pleased with your clothing. If your clothing is a frame for your body, it’s sensual and God hates what you’re doing. Everybody wants to talk about a prophet, but no one wants to listen to one. I’m talking about Christianity. I have spent my life in jungles. I have spent my life freezing in the Andes Mountains. I have seen people die. A little boy, Andrew Myman [phonetic], the Muslims shot him five times throughthe stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he cried out, “I am so afraid but I cannot deny Jesus Christ. Please don’t kill me, but I will not deny Him.” And he died in a pool of blood. And you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a tee shirt, because you go to a conference. I’m talking about holiness. I’m talking about Godliness.

I wish––you know what a move of God would be in this place? If all of you came under conviction, if I myself came under conviction of the Holy Spirit, we fell down on our faces and wept because we watch the things that God hates, because we wear the things that God hates, because we act like the world, look like the world, smell like the world, because we do the very things, and we know not that we do these things, because we do not know the Word of God. Because, even though we claim as a denomination that the Scripture is the infallible Word of God, basically all we get is illustrations, stories, and quaint little novels. Oh, that God will glow on this place, that we would turn away from our sin, that we would renounce the things that are displeasing to God, and, then, that we would run to Him and we would relish Him and we would love Him.
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Amen!!

Praying Through the Day

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“…build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” (Jude 1:20, NIV)

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God… . And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Ephesians 6:12-13a, 18, NIV)


What does it mean to you to “pray in the Spirit”? There are many theological debates on this issue, which I can’t say I’d like to address. In my mind, it’s one of those “disputable matters” that’s best left between an individual and God (see Romans 14:1, 22). But clearly, praying in the Spirit is something that helps build us up in our faith and equips us to fight the battle where it’s truly being engaged–in the heavenly realms.

There are many areas in which I struggle. I often meditate on Romans 7, particularly verses 21-24: “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am!” All too often, I find myself a prisoner of the flesh…knowing what God wants me to do but unable to do it by my own strength. Not wanting to be irritable to the children, but reacting with my emotions. Not wanting to feel depressed, but not willing to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 12:5). Wanting to experience the joy of the Lord, but unable to “set [my mind] on things above” (Colossians 3:2), where true joy comes from.

Granted, through Bible study and prayer and, not the least, by my own determined effort, I have made consistent progress in areas of deficiency. I’m certainly not in the same place today that I was three years ago, or even six months ago. But God has really impressed upon me recently the importance of prayer. I’ve been consciously developing an ongoing prayer life and a deeper “attitude of prayer” on a daily basis. Hard to do in the hustle-and-bustle, yes. Difficult to sustain with so many other things vying for attention. When the “tyranny of the urgent” is at its worst, prayer is the first thing that suffers. Probably because it’s one of the most effective things we can do!

For me, progress in the area of prayer began with the reading of “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. (I bought a copy from CBD but it’s available in the public domain and can be printed as an e-book; places like Project Gutenberg have it). I don’t even think I read the whole book, but enough to get motivated and change some things about my personal prayer life.

Lately, “The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit” by Watchman Nee has brought about more dramatic changes, both in how I view the everyday events of life and how I respond to them. Praise God, I’ve been slowly but surely seeing breakthrough in so many areas that have been personally frustrating to me. Not that I’m now perfect, mind you, but the progress has been more than encouraging.

One illustration that Watchman Nee used (and which caused me to think) was in the matter of prayer: two men wanted to develop a closer intimacy with God by growing in their attitude of prayer. In order to develop this habit, they set their watches to go off each hour, and on the hour would make it a point to pray. Unfortunately, this never allowed them to develop that desired communion with God, because in the intervening minutes of the next hour, they became distracted and overwhelmed by whatever activity they were engaged in. Problem was (and this is my extrapolation) that they were praying with their minds, when they needed to learn to pray with their spirit (as the Bible verses mentioned above instruct).

So, of late, my prayer life has been changing. I no longer just pray in praise or pray for the needs that occur on a constant basis…I’m trying NOT to simply “pray with my mind” but rather to more constantly “pray with my spirit” as well (there IS a difference–see 1 Corinthians 14:15). I do believe that this is more than a contributing factor in some of the personal changes that have been taking place as I continue along on my spiritual journey in Christ. All I can do is praise God and press on…it’s my prayer that you’ll do the same. 🙂

Weathering the Seasons of Life

valuesdr

I’ve been meaning to blog, really I have. I’ve had lots of thoughts, but of course now that I have a minute to sit down and write something, they’re nowhere to be found.

I’m in a new season of life. The word that keeps coming to mind when I try to describe it is “distracted.” We’re trying to stay on track with homeschooling. I decided this week to begin potty training our 20 month-old. There’s some training to do with the two older girls–new jobs I want to teach them, ways they need to be encouraged more in Godly behavior as they interact with one another. Managing the home has to happen. And then there’s the baby!

My husband and children brought in a half-dozen pumpkins last Sunday evening, because they had some soft spots and weren’t going to make it any longer on the vine. I set out Monday morning (Labor day) to cook, mash and freeze those six little pumpkins. It was about 8:30 in the morning when I started.

I think I finished at about 5:30 in the afternoon.

Why? Because I set the water to boil and put in the pumpkins. Then got distracted. We had company and so of course the children needed adequate supervision and encouragement. I wanted to put on a cup of coffee for my friend. The baby needed to nurse. Then, I wondered, how long has that pumpkin been boiling, anyway?! Pricked it with a fork and it seemed more than done. So I took it off the stove and started scraping the flesh out and dumping it into my blender.

Then I got distracted. I think it was the baby again. And then the kids wanted to go swimming, so I needed to be outside by the pool. While outside, my husband (who had been painting our garage) wondered if I had made the hamburger patties, since it was almost lunch time. Of course I hadn’t. So, leaving the other mom to police the pool, in I went to make some patties, set the table, and put out the rest of the food. Sure would have been nice if the kids had been around to help.

So the pumpkin sat on the counter until after lunch. I got the girls down for a nap, but then the baby woke up wanting to nurse. At least I got to sit down…

Managed to do about three-quarters of the pumpkin by the time the girls woke up from nap. Realized our company would still be around for dinner. Tried to figure out what I was going to put on the table. Made some cookies for the kids and the guys outside (thankfully, I had plenty of frozen balls of cookie dough in the freezer for just such on occasion!).

It goes on…but let’s just say I did not finish the pumpkin until some time after dinner. Praise God it wasn’t also a school day!

It was a good day, but a busy day. It seems every day lately is like that (though not all of them “good…”). But God is good, and God is faithful. We’re pressing on.

Seems a good time to re-post an article that I wrote almost a year ago, called “Weathering the Seasons of Life.” A lot of it is resonating with me right now, though I have to admit I’m doing better (in terms of my spiritual “being”) now than I did then. Praise the Lord for progress. 🙂

Anyway, here it is…

Weathering the Seasons of Life
By Cynthia Carrier

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:1 is probably familiar to most of us; it’s not uncommon to hear talk of “seasons” in Christian circles. Seasons are those times of life when we face change, trial, unusual circumstances, or even special grace and blessing. Whenever I’ve heard people talk about being in a particular “season” of life, I get the feeling that things aren’t as they’d like, or that they’re just waiting for this “season” to pass.
We’ve recently weathered one of those seasons which, I think, has almost come to its end. It all started in August of this year when we knew we’d soon be moving from Connecticut to Indiana. Even while I began going through our houseful of belongings—sorting, giving away, throwing away, and boxing up—I was trying to get a head start on our school year, knowing that as the move became more imminent we’d be forced to take a prolonged vacation.
During this time, the baby seemed extra fussy, always wanting to be held. Our toddler was in the process of being potty-trained, with irregular success. And suddenly our three year-old daughter became incredibly whiny. I will say that I did try very hard to keep everything on an even keel, both for myself and particularly for the children. I wanted the transition to be as seamless as possible. Admittedly, however, I had a hard time distinguishing between those things that “needed” to get done and what I simply felt pressured to accomplish. As a result, I was easily frustrated. This did not help to keep the tone of our home what it should have been.
As it so often does, God’s grace evidenced itself at many critical moments. There were quite a few times I had to confess my irritability to my husband or my children and ask for forgiveness and prayer. All in all, though, the process of packing, and even driving halfway across the country, went fairly well and I began to congratulate myself on having weathered this season of life.
I was to find out, however, that it was only the beginning. Once we moved into our new home, the unpacking was another challenge of its own. Yet, we’d been on homeschool “vacation” for almost three whole weeks and I wanted to get back to the books, in one form or another. Trouble was, all the school things were still in boxes and I had no place to put them, as the rec room where they would be stored had woefully inadequate shelving. Add to this feeling pressured to attack all of the other areas of the house (both cleaning and unpacking), and not even knowing where the local grocery store was! Being one who does not deal well with change in the first place, I was reaching the limits of my ability to cope.
To top it all off, after having been in Indiana for only a few days (and thinking that things could only go up from here!), our nine-month-old baby suddenly stopped nursing and my hormones went a little berserk. I’d like to think that I only had a few bad days, but my husband lovingly insists that it was the better part of a week. I was not pleasant to be around. Not only did I make most of the family miserable, but I made myself miserable with self-condemnation. By week’s end, I was asking God to just give me the grace to “start over.” And finally, He did. On Saturday I awoke and truly felt like I had experienced the mercies of God that are “new every morning” (see Lamentations 3:22-24).
But the season itself was still not over. I began homeschooling again that Monday with what few materials I could muster, all while continuing to unpack and make our new house a home and struggling to get to know a new community and integrate in a new church. There were still many things that remained much too unsettled. Thankfully, however, my emotional state had stabilized.
As I write this reflection, I finally feel like this season has run its course. There are only a handful of boxes that remain to be unpacked. Our house feels like home. School has resumed successfully for these past few weeks. We’ve learned the area a bit and gotten to know some wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord. I’ve asked the Lord throughout this season just what it was He wanted to show me, and now that it’s nearing its end, I believe He’s finally brought it all together. As He always does, He’s worked all things for good and given me some lessons that will hopefully carry me through the next difficult season of life with a bit more joy and stability.
The Word that God gave me to put it all together is found in Ecclesiastes 8:4-6:
“For the word of a king is authority and power, and who can say to him, What are you doing? Whoever observes the [king’s] command will experience no harm, and a wise man’s mind will know both when and what to do. For every purpose and matter has its [right] time and judgment, although the misery and wickedness of man lies heavily upon him [who rebels against the king].” (Ecclesiastes 8:4-6, AMP)

The New Living Translation puts it this way:
“His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.”
With this Scripture, God brought some conviction to my spirit that I had focused more, in this season, on the doing than on my being. Yes, everything that needed to get accomplished was accomplished—but there was an unnecessary expense to myself and to my family. I believe that one of the reasons things began to turn around was because, during my bad week, I realized that I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t even know what to pray—so I just asked God for wisdom. I also asked Him to help me to obey Him and live according to His Word, first and foremost, trusting that everything else would fall into place in His time. When I read the verses above, these truths seem to resonate there.
When we’re going through one of life’s seasons, we can’t just give up. We must look to the Lord and to His Word and seek wisdom for each moment. We have to be willing to do hard things, if that’s what God asks of us. Sometimes simply obeying God is hard enough in itself (for example, responding gently and patiently to a child’s repeated questions, when really we’d like to snap at them, “Would you just be quiet?!”) At other times, we may have to give up on our own preconceived ideas about how things “should” be, and go with what God wants them to be.

A season of life may come about because of a pregnancy or the birth of a new baby, an illness or death in the family, a job change or move, or any number of life transitions. As managers of our homes and daughters of the King, we have to persevere through these trials knowing that they will result in greater maturity (James 1:2-4).

In practical terms this may mean that for a while our homes are “neat” rather than “clean.” If we homeschool, we may rely on oral drill and practice rather than workbooks, or focus on the basics of the “three R’s” rather than a more formal curriculum.
If we want to continue to fulfill the Scriptural injunction to “practice hospitality” during a challenging season, we simply have to remember that there is a difference between hospitality and entertaining. We don’t have to offer a four-course meal on fine china with our best silver and choice of drinks and dessert. Instead, our guests will feel most welcome and most blessed when we seek to serve in love. Proverbs 17:1 may speak to this when it says, “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.” At the same time, we do need to seek Godly wisdom for those activities that can reasonably be refused—even “church” functions!

It is always wise to have some freezer meals on hand for those unexpected trying times. If you don’t, ask some of the women in your fellowship or family if they would be willing to cook a meal for your family. God created us as the body of Christ to support and uplift one another; if you have particular needs in a trying season, be honest about sharing them and asking for what you need. First and foremost, lift your concerns to God in prayer and He will provide help, oftentimes in unexpected ways.

James 1:2-8 is a good Scripture to remember as you face the storms of life:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:2-8, NIV)
Granted, it’s not easy to remain joyful in the face of adversity—but it should encourage us to know that God is working all things for good and that we’ll get done exactly what God means for us to accomplish. That’s where it’s important to pray for wisdom—because all too often, our frustrations arise simply because our ideas and God’s plans are at odds. We must commit to living in a way that honors God, even when life throws us a curveball. As we do so, God is faithful and will bring the appointed season to an end when He’s sure that we’ve learned whatever lesson He intended to teach us.

"But I Didn’t Hear You!"

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Hear [heer]–to learn by the ear or by being told; be informed of
Listen [lis-uhn]–to pay attention; heed; obey (from dictionary.com)

I’ve thought about blogging several times this week but didn’t ever get to it. And even if I did, I really don’t know just what I would have written about. It’s been one of those weeks! Like I’ve been out to the woodshed constantly. Most certainly because I was slow in learning the lesson God had for me. I’m sure that’s never happened to you. 🙂

Recall from my last post how the Lord taught me a valuable lesson through my recent labor and delivery: embrace trials as from the Lord…look beyond the trials to God’s victory and SPEAK His victory into your situation. Well, as the Lord had formed those thoughts in my mind, I remember thinking at the time, this lesson will have great significance to me–but I knew it wasn’t for “now.”

Fast forward only a week or so, though, and it’s like that little lesson was all but forgotten! This week was, I kid you not, a CONSTANT barrage of “stuff.” Testing-of-my-patience stuff. And, I must say, although I persevered through the first few days of “trials”, I was ready to give up by Thursday, and on Friday there were a couple of moments where I actually gave in to tears. This is not something I normally do. And I don’t think it was post-partum hormones, either (though my husband might disagree…).

Then last night (“Mom’s night off,” with Daddy outside working with everyone but the baby), I decided to pick up where I left off in a great little volume that my husband and I have been working through together: “The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit,” by Watchman Nee. It’s about (perhaps obviously) how we must allow our outer man to be broken through the discipline of the Holy Spirit if we are to be effective in serving God fully. Of course, God used this to speak to me about how I had responded to the events of the week. I came away very convicted about failing to receive every event as a shaping experience from the Lord’s hand…also convicted about an attitude that was less-than-stellar. Not that I hadn’t been aware of these things during the course of the week–but now it became more than obvious that I needed to repent.

As I reflected on all of these things this morning (and re-read my last blog–another conviction, ouch!), I realized that when I should have been putting the Lord’s timely lesson about “trials” into practice, I was more focused on the trials than on the Lord. I wondered, since this was such a recent “revelation,” just how could I have failed to apply it?

As if in answer to my question, the Lord brought to mind a phrase that is all-too-common in our house: “But I didn’t hear you!” How many times do I ask the children to do something (and they could be standing right in front of me!), only to have to repeat myself a few minutes later when I realize that they’re not obeying? And their response?: “But I didn’t hear you!” And my typical retort: “If you hear me speaking, chances are I’m not talking to myself–so you should be listening!” (And of course we’re practicing saying, “Yes, Mom!” after I ask them to do something, just so that I know they heard me.) Point is, I realized that I knew God had spoken something to me and I had heard–but maybe I wasn’t really listening. If I had been, perhaps I would have obeyed! I might as well have said, “But I didn’t hear you, God!” And His response? I bet it would be something like, “If you hear me speaking, chances are I’m not talking to myself–so you should be listening!”

“See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice… . Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen” (Isaiah 32:1, 3).