Weekly Blog

God is Always Speaking...

Our God reveals Himself to us in many ways. The primary ways that I hear the voice of God is through His creation, through his written word, and by the whispers of the Holy Spirit to my heart.

In the first of this three-part blog series I spoke about God speaking to me through His marvelous creation. Hearing God’s voice through His written word is the second part of the series.

Standing in Awe of God’s Word.

I stood in a small room in The British Library and quietly cried big crocodile tears unexpectedly. As I walked among the most revered treasured documents in the Treasures Room, near the back of the room two rows of glass cases stood inauspiciously without anyone around them.

God is Always Speaking.

Our God reveals Himself to us in many ways. The primary ways that I hear the voice of God is through His creation, through his written word, and by the whispers of the Holy Spirit to my heart.

Today's message is about the first of these three ways God speaks to me. It will be followed by two more messages this week where I'll talk about the second and third ways.

In the early 1850’s the New York state legislature and city designers came up with a plan to create the first landscaped public park in the United States. It began with more than 700 acres in the center of Manhattan. They knew the potential for New York City to explode in population, and if they didn’t have a park, a place to where the public could retreat, it would greatly hinder the public health. So, Central Park was designed to be a place of retreat where the public could take a deep breath and rest.

One of the designers, Frederick Law Olmsted said,

E.E. Cummings said, “most people are perfectly afraid of silence.”

“We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror.”  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Yet another writer said, “Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life’s nothingness.”

While I don’t agree with that writer about a lack of meaning in life, there are times that we can feel like there is a lack of meaning and “nothingness” to our lives.

Our family has plunged into the FFA adventure. That’s Future Farmers of America, for those who aren’t familiar with the term. Mimi is our youngest and at 14 she is taking on the responsibility of raising a lamb. It will only be about a five-month adventure ending with showing the lamb and selling it at the Silver Dollar Fair. It should be a fantastic learning experience for all of us.

My father’s family was farming and ranching just two generations ago, so this feels familiar. We were blessed to live among the orchards near the Sacramento river with our young family for a few years and found the rhythms of agriculture delightful.

Do you count how many shopping baskets are in each line at the store to make sure to stand in the shortest line?

Do you find yourself frustrated when someone is driving slower than the speed limit in front of you?

Do you see multi-tasking as a “normal” part of life that you should embrace?

Part of our Christmas tradition for my sister and I growing up was watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special every year. Originally the cartoon aired in 1965 and it was replayed every year as I was growing up on one of the three TV stations for which we had reception.

The story of this cartoon contrasts the consumerism of the season with the true meaning of Christmas, which Linus so aptly describes by quoting most of Luke 2 from the Bible.

“Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”

Don “Pops” Rogers went ahead of us to heaven this past month and celebrated Thanksgiving with His precious Jesus. His “promotion” has gripped my heart with grief because I loved how he helped me see the world. Pops was always teaching others a biblical worldview by sharing stories of encounters with friends and strangers in our city. Armed with a cup of coffee in his right hand and his left hand on your shoulder, he was always ready to encourage others to walk with Jesus.

We recently set our clocks back and gained an hour. Some people love the time change that happens twice a year, others loathe those days. Usually as we “fall back” I decide to use that hour as “bonus time” and go to bed an hour later. It’s like reaching into a coat pocket and finding $20 in cash; you don’t celebrate it until it happens.

One of my earliest memories is of being a very tiny tot sitting under the front pew of our church in Lorimor, Iowa while my mother was preaching.  That was my favorite spot because I didn’t get “interrupted” there.  My mother could see me at all times, but no one else in the congregation could, so I was at liberty to play and amuse myself.  My older brothers and sisters had to sit on those hard pews and behave.  That was the beginning of my love, respect, and appreciation for pastors, the shepherds called by Jesus, to attend His earth-bound flocks.