God has something to say

On the first day of Two-Thousand Eleven,

Holy God called from his throne in heaven.

It wasn't His first time to send out His call

He sent calls to Isaiah, Moses and Paul

He called carpenters, fishermen, zealots and rulers

Young men and women the age of high schoolers

You see, many are called but few ever hear

Most have buzzers and gadgets so near

that they never do notice or hear what to do.

They never reply, so Holy never hears who

Whether rich or you're poor, whether old or still young

No matter your size or the things you have done

The Holy One is listening. He asks the world "who"

will accept my mission. He says, "I'm asking for you."

He waits and listens. Adventure is ahead!

He listens for commitments and prayers that are said.

Holy listens, and listens. No response to be heard.

Holy God waited but no answer was heard.

Holy God saw hunger. Sorrow and fear

He saw children in trouble. Yes, the ones He held dear.

He hears the voices of people who have no real hope

Single mothers and orphans just trying to cope

He sees poverty here and a world away

And wonders exactly what His children will say

And Holy God waits for an answer from you.

Will you listen and answer? Will Holy hear who?

I often walk the halls and climb the stairs of my church for exercise at night after everyone has left. I’m not much for fitness centers.  It’s a great way to get exercise and spend some time alone without having to worry about who will see me, who I’ll need to talk to and whether my socks match. Around 9:30 one night two cars parked in the back of the church on a night where no one scheduled anything. We have large windows in our stairwell as a walked up the stairs I noticed these cars. The doors were open and although I couldn’t see them I imagined that they were talking to each other. Like some people with a heightened sense of doom I managed to size up the situation very quickly. They were probably serial killers ready to crash through the window with a pickaxe and hunt me down in my neon green sweatpants and orange t-shirt and then dispatch me with a sawed off shotgun. (I know, I sometimes lean toward worst-case scenarios.) But after a few moments of letting my imagination scheme that I’d be the feature of a 20/20 investigation called The Cold Blooded Killer of the Tacky Reverend, I thought, if they really were vigilante killers and I was about to be their next victim, what have I done with my life so far.

 I rarely ever had those kinds of thoughts in my twenties and thirties, but on the backside of my forties, that question recurs often. Have I listened to God? Have I really lived my life to the fullest? Have I heard God’s voice?

The two vehicles left the parking lot of the church in unremarkable fashion but the question hasn’t. Have I heard the Holy One.  The old adage is true: Our life is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God.

The greatest thing in life is knowing you are living for something eternal. Most run from experience to experience, connecting a random set of dots in hopes that somehow they’ll extract meaning, significance and maybe, just maybe, bliss. Meanwhile just under the surface a divine rhythm is calling you into something more.

Following Christ demands that we listen. Prayer is often seen as a one-way street; everything going up and nothing coming down. This isn’t what God had in mind. When we shut down all the white noise and ambiance, God will speak. It’s not always an audible voice, but a voice just the same.

More Subtraction than Addition

What does it take to hear God’s voice? Money? Actually, the pursuit of hearing God’s voice will ultimately lead to spending less. How’s that? The pursuit of God is more about subtraction than addition. Imagine going to a concert. Let’s say you wanted to hear your favorite singer. When you arrive at the concert hall you discover that this singer is actually just one singer in a two hundred-voice choir of dreadfully tone-deaf singers.

You leave the concert hall demanding a refund because you really didn’t get to hear what you wanted to hear. The three tenors were unheard because of the blaring dissonant sounds. The three tenors are the voices of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The dissonant voices are the static and meaningless words of the day to day. At some point we must stop and find a place of silence. God’s word, silence, personal private worship and time are elements that create an atmosphere to listen to what God has to say.

It all happens on the Threshing Floor

1 The nation of Isreal once again decided to decide to do life their way without any thought to God and so, once again, God let them have it their way and they ended up in the hands of their enemies, the Midianites and for seven years.

2 Because the Midianites were so powerful and vindictive the Isrealites hunkered down in crags of rocks, behind mountains and any other place that offered them protection and invisibility.

3 The Isrealites would plant crops and the Midianites, the Amalekites would swoop down onto  the fields to steal the crops they had worked to hard to cultivate.

4 The pirates of Midian laid ruin to everything of value including the livestock. Nothing was spared.

5 Their troops filled with tents and camels and donkeys looked like a swarm of locusts, too many to count. What they could see, they would piladge.

6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that in desperation they cried out to the LORD for help.

 7 When God heard the Isrealites cry out to God for help,

8 He sent them a prophet who said “Hear God: I rescued you from your slave masters back in Egypt.

9 I made short work of their chains, smashing al of them.

10 I told you not to worship other gods like the ones of the Amorites, but no, you won’t listen to Me much less obey Me.

 11 The angel of the LORD came and sat in the shade of a tree where Gideon the son of Joash was secretly threshing wheat and stowing it away, out of the sight of the pillaging Midianites.   

If there ever was a humble introduction of a Bible hero, it would be the introduction of Gideon. We find him scrounging together and hiding any resources not taken by the enemy. Something’s wrong about this, don’t you think? God never wants us to skulk! God never intended for us to work around evil, but this is exactly what we see Gideon doing. Just barely getting by. Paul reminded the Romans of the intimacy and victory we have when God is on our side.

For when you recieved the life of Jesus you no longer were chained to a daily nagging fear of what will happen next or if you'll ever truly belong to God.  No, you became a child of God. We can cry out to him like a toddler, "Daddy, Daddy!" Our spirit and God's spirit hold hands in this astounding relationship of God and humanity. Let's take this a step further. If we're His children, we are also His heirs. Heirs to God and co-heirs with Jesus, His son and our brother.  This blood runs thick and nothing will separate it. And when we share in our Brothers suffering we will also share in His glory.

(Romans 8:15-17  The Conversational Bible)

When the angel came to Gideon, He said to Gideon, “Greetings mighty warrior!”  It’s almost jarring when we remember our first glimpse of Gideon. Hiding food and sneaking out of the enemy’s sight.  I can imagine Gideon looking over his shoulder and thinking, are you talking to me?

The truth is that God your hidden potential that no one, including you. How many opportunities have you let pass by because you just didn’t feel like you made the cut of “mighty warrior?”

The question isn’t whether you have a divine mission, the question is, are you going to be still and open enough to hear the voice of God calling you.  The question always comes down to receptivity.

Are you receptive to the voice of God?