Winter view through our front window
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This last Lord’s Day we heard Tim Heitz, a friend of ours, preach on “Listening to God” in which he shared a message from I Samuel 3:1-10. That’s when young Samuel was hearing the Lord speak. Tim began his message with an interesting illustration.
The young man filled out his form and sat down. After a few minutes he stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified.Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.”The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair!”The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.”The young man proved his worthiness for the job by having the ear to hear and understand the Morse Code. He did this amidst the cacophony of other noises in the busy office.We live in a busy world with a cacophony of sounds. Jesus in His teaching on truth in John 8 states, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” We so need to hear the “words of God” amidst the noise.
Jesus said to Pilate at His trial, “I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
One of the great spiritual responsibilities we have is exercising discernment and teaching those whom we influence to do so as well. There is a cacophony of voices that call out to us to go against the truth. We are exposed to these voices at all ages, but our youth are particularly vulnerable. We need to constantly commit to hearing the voice of God, foundationally through His authoritative, inspired, and inerrant Word, the Holy Scriptures.
Tim finished his message with these words, “When we hear or study God’s Word, when we pray about direction in our life, when we pray about direction in the life of our church, we need to be asking, what could God be trying to tell me through this? Because the closer you get to the Shepherd, the louder His voice will be.”
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Loving Father, we who claim to be Your children recognize Your voice and choose to listen and follow You. Many other voices beckon and personalities charm but Your divine love surpasses all earthly images because of Jesus, the Great Shepherd, who laid down His life for us. Your love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. I lay it all down, take up the cross of Jesus and follow after You through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“I Will Listen” Video Twila Paris “I don’t know the way to go from here, but I’ve already made my choice: this is where I stand, until He moves me on, and I will listen to His voice.”
“Open Our Eyes” Video Maranatha Singers (This song has the line, “Open our ears Lord and help us to listen”)
“Come and Listen” Video David Crowder Band
“Every Promise of Your Word” Video Keith and Kristyn Getty
“I Don’t Belong (Sojourner’s Song)” Video Buddy Green
“Voice Of Truth” Video Casting Crowns
“The Baby Box” Not related to today’s message but extremely moving. Hundreds of babies are abandoned each year in South Korea, prompting a pastor to build a special baby box for them to be left in. Video This remarkable story is also a 3 day movie coming out soon called “The Drop Box”.
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