Dream'in!

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. (Genesis 28:12-13 NIV)

I'm not much of a dreamer. I don't mean dreams for the future, I have plenty of those. I don't dream much at night. Some people dream nearly every single night. The dream Jacob had would be one dream I would love to have. The bible is full of dreams, special messages from God, to his people. I wonder why God sends messages through dreams to some people and not to others. Maybe he uses dreams because we aren't open to his messages when we are awake.

God is always speaking to us. The real question? Are we are listening? It doesn't matter if God is speaking if we are not listening. Listening starts by preparing our hearts and our minds for the message. Prayer, bible study, and worship prepare us. Just as important is my attitude. Am I really expecting the Lord to speak? Do I have faith enough to turn my ear to the Lord to hear his wisdom? I have to expect to hear from him. He is speaking.

Thank you Lord for your patience with me. I beg you to speak to me in a way I will know your voice. Speak to me in power so that I might be moved to act on your voice. I love you and worship you. I praise you for the answers to prayer and the guidance I get from your glorious voice. You are wonderful! Amen!

Listen

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6 NIV)

The Lord of the universe is speaking to us. Are you listening? God is abounding in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He shares it freely to those who follow him. But, you have to listen.

Listening is a lost art. When we teach, give instructions to our kids, or discus issues with coworkers, are we listened to. When we pray we should spend just as much time listening as we do speaking to God. When we read the word, we need to pause to listen to the words. We need to spend time analyzing his message, internalizing what he is saying to us.

Listening to God speak should be easy. But it does take a special relationship. When I pray at night, in my comfy bed, after a long day, it's really difficult to listen. Many times I just fall asleep "listening" . We need to make sure we are having two way conversations with God. If he is doing the talking and we are not listening we will miss his blessings. I have changed my prayer time to include specific listening time where I'm not going to doze off on God.

Praise God he listens to us, helps us, and delivers us when we call out to him! I'm sure he's dissappointed when his voice is ignored. He still speaks. He still sends his word to us in many different ways. He is patient and loves us with all his power and majesty. Praise God for this wonderful life we live!

Please just Listen to me!

Psalm 142

    A maskil^[b] of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

 ¹ I cry aloud to the LORD;
   I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
² I pour out before him my complaint;
   before him I tell my trouble.

 ³ When my spirit grows faint within me,
   it is you who watch over my way.
In the path where I walk
   people have hidden a snare for me.
⁴ Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
   no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
   no one cares for my life.

If you don't know the story, David wrote this when he was hiding in a cave. He was hiding from Saul who was out to kill him. He was alone and miserable. Stephanie and I went to Wind Cave National Park on vacation and took a tour of the cave. As caves go, this one was uneventful. It didn't have the great stalagmites or stalactites like Carlsbad Caverns. It was pretty, but not awe inspiring. Most caves are dreary and depressing. When we were at the deepest part of the cave tour, the ranger shut off all the lights. I have never witnessed such complete darkness. I put my hand inches from my face and couldn't see it. It was weird having lost the sense of sight. But, I became much more aware of the sounds of those around me.  I could hear everything.

Thinking about David in this cave made me think about a conversation I had on Thursday with a good friend. I hadn't had a very good week. I wasn't being hunted down like David, but I certainly felt alone, miserable and tired. My friend sat with me and just LISTENED. He hardly said a word. He occasionally acknowledged his support and once in awhile spoke some words of reassurance. But, he didn't solve my problems. (He can't!) All he did was listen. His listening meant more to me than he could ever imagine.

Sometimes all we want is to be heard. Sometimes all people need is a good friend who is there to listen and by listening they lend their support and comfort. Oh, that I could learn to listen like my friend. Praise God he sent this great man into my life at the right moment in time. 

God Speaks to me - I'm hearing parables!

My wife Stephanie and I returned this week from Vacation. What a great trip. We traveled over 5000 miles by motorcycle through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois.  We have taken 6 of these trips over the past 6 years. 3 out of these 6 trips, we have had some type of mechanical issues with the motorcycle. (two different motorcycles) I think Stephanie would agree that these trips have been very important for us. We have very little time to spend with each other, uninterrupted, through out the year. We are in constant service to our school, community, and CMA ministry. This time is for us to relax, enjoy each other, and reconnect with God. Yet, we have had some costly motorcycle repairs come from these trips and some severe stress. This year was the 3rd incident.

We were traveling down I-80 just outside of Green River, Wyoming. I was traveling at about 70 mph when I heard a popping noise. Stephanie asked if I felt the vibration. I said no, that it was probably just the grooves in the road. Then I did feel it. We had just blown a tire. I kept repeating for Stephanie to hold on. As I let off the throttle the wobbling got worse. I thought for sure we were going to crash. We didn't. But, we now had a tire to replace. Thanks to AAA, and the grace of God, the only damage done was to our wallet and our nerves.

I believe God is in control of my life. I pray constantly for his guidance and study his word to learn of his plan for my life. I specifically pray that he reveal to me and teach me his ways. So, when something like this happens I automatically try to find out what God is trying to say through this incident? As a matter of fact I know he is speaking to me. The problem is, sometimes, I'm deaf to his voice. Just like hearing the parables. Sometimes, I hear them but do not understand. I am so deaf to Gods beautiful voice. I can certainly say, through the other two incidents, I felt he was speaking to me in a specific way. The first incident I thought he was telling me not to be so selfish and self-centered. (I'm still working on that.) The second, I thought he was trying to teach me to rely on him and to let me know that HE IS IN CONTROL of all things.

So, what is he trying to tell me with this most recent incident? I'm not sure, yet. I know he is and I know that at some point the ear lugs will come out and I will actually hear what he is trying to say.

I thank God for his protection on our trip. I truly believe he saved us from the imminent crash. He provided us with a great , restful trip and I praise him for the way he has shown his love for me. I pray that he opens my ears so I can hear his voice. I pray that I will be open to his leading and guidance for every moment the rest of my life.

You are an amazing God. I know you are speaking, I just hope I can hear you.

Two Ears -- One Mouth!

Psalm 81 (New International Version, ©2011)

⁷ In your distress you called and I rescued you,
   I answered you out of a thundercloud;
   I tested you at the waters of Meribah.^[c]
8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
   if you would only listen to me, Israel!
⁹ You shall have no foreign god among you;
   you shall not worship any god other than me.
¹⁰ I am the LORD your God,
   who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
 ¹¹ “But my people would not listen to me;
   Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
   to follow their own devices.

God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason! Use them proportionately!

Why is it so hard to listen? Out of any of our possible choices, listening takes the least amount of energy. Yet, in our society we honor people who talk more than people who listen.  Even as Christians our conversations with God are full of a lot more talking that listening. We are not much different than Israel. We are so busy talking and pleading for help, we forget to listen.

This message is not just for you. This message is for me. I am such an impatient person. i do not take the time to listen. I have to attack problems, solve them and get on to the next one. I don't have time for idol listening.
Do you understand where I'm coming from?

Tonight when you say your prayers, in the morning when you say your prayers, At dinner time, when you say your prayers, don't forget to listen! God has a lot to say, he loves us and wants the best for us. How can we know what that is if we don't listen. 

I'm not Deaf! Really!

Hebrews 3 (The Message)

 ^12-14 .....These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don't turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising. ^15-19For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren't they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn't it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they'd never get where they were going, wasn't he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.


I haven't had a hearing test for over a year. But, I remember the last one proved I was not deaf. I am often accused of being deaf.  My wife and daughters are sure I am. I do like to have the TV turned up loud so I can enjoy the vibration of my surround sound speakers. I have also been accused of having "selective listening skills". This is harder to disprove. I can admit that I don't always pay attention to what's going on around me. I also have to admit that when Stephanie and the girls get talking I don't ALWAYS pay attention to what's being said. I would like to say I'm just being polite by not eaves dropping in a conversation I'm not included. However, It also seems that these "selective listening" episodes always coincide with me watching a ball game or some other program I AM interested in. That might affect my ability to listen!  When you raised 3 girls and sit in the same room with these grown-up women, my head spins. Therefore my ears seem to shut down for safety reasons!

How many times do we turn a deaf ear to God? Many times we have "selective listening" when it comes to God. We love to hear from God when he is blessing us. We love to hear about God's love for us.  We want to hear about God's plan........unless it doesn't match our own plans.  We love to pray for guidance.........unless we don't get the answer we want. We want to pray for God's will, but he shouldn't ask us to step out in faith or be uncomfortable. Should he? It is truly amazing how stubborn we are and how I think I know more than God. My attitude and my sinfulness get in the way of my ears and heart listening to the voice of God.

We really aren't much different than the Israelites. God delivered them fom Pharoah, he opened the Red Sea, he fed them mana, he provided water out of a rock. He delivered them over and over again. Yet, they still chose to worship and build idols. They did not listen to God. Their weakness and their lack of faith is a mirror of our own weakness and lack of faith. We say we trust God. Do we? Do we only trust him when it is convenient for us? We don't listen. We turn a deaf ear to the creator of the universe. Yet, he still loves us. Don't just talk to God....................Listen for his powerful voice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Lord, forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us for turning a deaf ear to you and your perfect wisdom. Open our hearts to your plan for our lives. Help us to embrace that plan and to live our lives for you. Help us to truly listen to you. Amen.