Tuning into the Call of God

I have been completely inconsistent in my blog posting.  The reason is because I took on the challenge of teaching a class at Kent State and it has completely sucked up what little free time I have.  I did not quite realize how much time it would take.  But isn’t that the case with all of us.  We get so hung up on the busyness of life that we miss the important things.  This summer has come and gone.  We are now officially in Fall.  For us in Cleveland, Falls are not so bad.  It is the winter and the absence of spring that is so bad. 

We had Bethany here with us for six weeks or so this summer.  And as we have gotten to appreciate the summers here, we ate out on the deck a lot.  And because we had so much rain in the spring, the mosquitos were out in force.  There were a number of days where we had to go back in because they were “bugging” us so much.  But I had heard on one of my podcasts of a new type of iPhone app that actually emits a high piercing sound that apparently drives away mosquitos.  So in searching around, I found a number of apps that do just that (after all there is always an “app for that”).  I downloaded the app and it actually seemed to work, although Debsue and Bethany may dispute that.  The other thing we learned is that I could not hear the pitch of this app, but Bethany could.  In fact, if I cranked it up, it was bothersome to her.  We even ran a test where I turned it off and on to see if she really could hear the sound and she convinced me through the non-statistical sample that she could in fact hear the noise. 

While an incomplete analogy, I did think of the fact that some of us are attuned to God’s calling and some of us aren’t.  We hear God speaking into our life and we act on it.  Maybe it is a prompting, an urging that comes from Scripture.  Maybe it is a pastor speaking a sermon that almost seems to be written specifically for us.  Maybe it is that small voice of God speaking to us in relationship.  Whatever that is, it is coming from the Holy Spirit and we have to be sensitized to it.  If we do not open ourselves up to hearing, we will not hear.  It is called “quenching the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19).  It is so easy to do – we get hung up in ourselves that we are not pliable to the Spirit. 

I have found memorizing Scripture to be one of the best formulas to training my mind to receive the Spirit.  We need to have “ears to hear” (Luke 8:8, 14:35) which is a readiness to hear God speaking into our hearts.  Another avenue is just being quiet before God.  That is so hard for me to do.  I am a Type A and always on the go, but just relaxing and talking to God in an attitude of expectant prayer is the ticket.  Worshipping God through music is yet another way of opening yourself up to the call of God.  I find that when I listen to gospel music the first thing in the morning, I am much better equipped to hear God’s voice throughout the day.  Finally, it is repelling of sin that is essential to allow us to hear God’s voice.  Psalm 66:18 says the Lord will not hear us if we are in sin.  If He can’t hear us, He won’t be speaking to us either.  That is a sure fire way of driving the Spirit’s speaking to us.  So we have to have repentant hearts that immediately repents of sin and calls out to God for help in ongoing rejection of sinful habits.  By filling our minds with Scripture, prayerful attitudes, and joyful worship, God is able to speak to us. 

Remembering 9/11–Best and Worst

I am one day late in writing this post but better late than never.  Everyone remembers what they were doing on 9/11.  I was in a board meeting and I remember the shock when someone told us a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  I remember being very concerned because I knew my brother-in-law did business in the tower.  As it turns out, he was supposed to be in the tower mid morning.  I remember after the full brunt of the impact had hit that we gathered our company team around and I just led us in prayer.  I remember some of our team being stuck in California as places were grounded and one of our guys having to share a ride back across country.  This same individual lost a family member in the WTC bombing.  I remember dismissing everyone mid-day so they could reflect on what had occurred. 

But what I most remember is the best and the worst.  The worst being people bent on destroying other people in the name of false religion.  Doesn’t something not add up when you can somehow justify killing innocents?  Christianity is imparting life and life abundantly and eternal.  Are you about life or are you about death?  The best was our country’s response.  I am very proud to be a U.S. citizen and we rallied in the face of a new threat.  As Americans, we live our life to the fullest.  The other major part of the story is it caused us to reflect on what we value most.  We hugged our spouse and kids tighter that night as we realized life can be fleeting.  But most of all, we realized that there is a path to eternal life and it wasn’t the way the terrorists envisioned it.  It had a shocking death too, but it was not to take life but to assure it.  The terrorists chose the path that leads to death.  It is the way to the cross and to the death Christ gave that leads to life. 

Do You Have a Right to be Angry?

We have been studying in the book of Jonah at our church.  This has caused me to really think through this short, but deep book.  Everyone that reads this book focuses on something different.  The great fish swallowing Jonah seems to be what gets the most Sunday School material.  Some have even questioned the legitimacy of this book given the fish story.  But the greater story here is the dialogue that Jonah and God have.  That is the more unbelievable story.  God desires a relationship, even when we are shaking our puny fist at Him.

Twice in Chapter 4, we have God asking Jonah if he has a right to be angry.  Once it is regarding the city of Ninevah and once regarding the plant that God built through the worm and then caused to whither.  Ninevah was repentant and God was gracious.  A double formula that none of us should be angry about.  Does anyone deserve to come into the kingdom on their own merits?  Is anyone beyond the reach of a compassionate and gracious God?  Of course the answer is a resounding “No”.  Can we ever be angry about God’s compassion?  No, because none of us deserve it. 

The worm is even more challenging.  I equate the plant and the worm to life’s circumstances.  My goodness, so many times I get frustrated by life’s events and just lash out.  How silly when compared to the weightier issues of eternity.  And that is God’s point – you were more concerned about the plant when souls are perishing.  In my vernacular, I am more concerned about my career, my baseball, my income, than I am people.  I have NO right to be angry about  anything.  Usually my anger is because I expect things to be different than what they are.  Life throws me a curveball.   But the active God is fully aware of my life and continuously brings me to lives that are waiting to be touched in some way.  The “worms” in life bring us to a more deeper awareness of God’s grace.