Welcome to my randomized study & miscellaneous thoughts about the Awesome God of the universe, who He is and what He wants us to be.

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Verse of the Day

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Today's Quote

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Can You Hear Me Now?

They said to Moses, 'You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die'
Exodus 20:19

Oswald Chambers writes,

We don't consciously and deliberately disobey God - we simply don't listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them - not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.

"You speak with us, . . . but let not God speak with us . . . ." We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don't want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God's servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, "Well, that's only your own idea, even though I don't deny that what you said is probably God's truth."

Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child? Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, "Lord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?" This is always the result once we hear God. But our real delight in finally hearing Him is tempered with the shame we feel for having taken so long to do so.

If you've passed anywhere near a television set in the US in the past few years, you no doubt have seen the commercial for the cellular telephone company in which the man walks around from place to place, repeating into his phone, "Can you hear me now?" We are left to suppose that the person on the other end has responded with an affirmative, as the man pictured smiles contentedly and moves to another location to repeat the action.

For awhile now, I've pondered about mankind desperately looking heavenward and pleading for God's attention. After meditiating on Chambers' writing (above), I've come to realize that it is (and always has been) God himself who is asking mankind, "Can you hear Me now?"

It started back in the beginning. We find it recorded in the
third chapter of Genesis where God called out, "Where are you?" to His hidden and naked creation. As Chambers correctly wrote, it's a matter of obedience. Adam did not obey God and therefore did not want to hear Him.

Jesus said 27 "My sheep (1) hear My voice, and (2) I know them, and they follow Me;

Trying to obey - letting Him live my life,
scribbled with crayon by dr. larry at 11:55 PM