Scripture

And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Quote

What hinders us from hearing God is that we are taken up with other things. It is not so much that we don’t want to hear but that we are not devoted in the right place to the right thing.

~Oswald Chambers

Of all the subjects that have come up in my quiet time, I think “hearing God” has occupied my mind more than any other, at least in the last few months. I am of the firm conviction that if God does not speak to me, I have nothing to say. The Greek word for preach is kēryssō and it is a verb. It means to proclaim after the manner of a herald. A herald is an official messenger. The message he shares or proclaims in not his message. The message comes from the one in authority over him. It could be a king or some high-ranking officer. In the old days, before telegraph, telephone and internet, humans were the carriers of messages. A courier was a messenger who carried a written message such as a letter, but a Herald was a messenger who carried an oral proclamation. He would go to the city square, find a high place, and shout aloud, “Thus says the King….” The message was not from him but from the one he served. That makes preaching pretty simple: If God does not give me a message, then I have nothing of substance to say. People think that old preachers like me don’t have to study; we can just pull out our old notes and preach old sermons. It does not work that way. I study more now than ever. Not only does the message need to be fresh, it must be from God.

I bet I know what some of you are thinking…“You may preach new messages but you use the same old stories.” I am afraid you are right! My old stories are getting old. Of course, I am digressing as is my tendency. The question is: what hinders us from hearing God speak? One thing is our business. We are too active. We don’t get still or quiet long enough to hear God. I am not saying that God cannot speak in traffic, He most certainly can but it is not the norm. Hyperactivity {rush-rush-rush} and fatigue are hinderances. You need to do your quiet time when your mind and body are rested. If you are 27 like me and you come in after a full day of activity, you are not going to have a quality QT. This is why Dr. Jack Taylor said, “Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.” This is what Elijah did and sometimes I get so tired I just lay in bed and meditate. I guess the biggest hinderance is our attitude–we are so self-willed that we really don’t want to hear what God has to say.

My daddy loved work and despised any form of recreation. He did not camp, hunt, fish, play golf or hunt arrow heads. He didn’t care anything about sports–any sport–hiking, biking, swimming, you name it. I never saw him watch one minute of baseball, football or anything else. He didn’t even pitch horse shoes. He was not an Alabama fan; nor was he an Auburn fan. He didn’t care for either. He did love his cows {Mother said he loved them more than us} and our Vet was an Auburn grad. I tried picking at him one day and it didn’t go over well with he or daddy. I never made that mistake again. Neither daddy nor the Vet gave a rip about football: their concern was for the cow. Needless to say, Daddy always had something for me to do. He worked all the time and he expected me to do the same, but I was boy and I wanted to have some fun and working was not fun, not then. Whenever I got the chance, I got out of range of Daddy’s voice. My get away was the creek. My philosophy was, “If I don’t hear him, I will not feel guilty for not responding.” After all, if I don’t hear his voice, how can I respond? So I think our attitude has a lot to do with it. One other thing: our fear is probably another hinderance. We are afraid He will ask us to make some kind of sacrifice or tell us to do something we are afraid to do. It all boils down to trust. We have to get to a place where we trust Him completely. He is not going to tell us to do something that is not in our best interest. His will would be what we longed for if we had His foreknowledge.

Extra

Rain is on the way they say and perhaps some wind as well. I would be content with rain only. We had 47 in YOUTH last night which is a record in the modern era {last four years} We had over 20 adults and around 10 children. We had close to 80 which is a Sunday morning crowd for us. Actually, it is more than we had last Sunday.  The Pizza Supper doesn’t hurt.

Jackson has his nights and days mixed up: he sleeps all day and stays up all night. He even slept through his bath yesterday. I have a pic but didn’t bring my phone to the office.

Have a good day; stay safe and thanks for reading the blog.