After starting off on a high note it seems that I have entered what those TV cell phone commercials depict as "dead zones." How is it that one day you can connect with God so beautifully, and then the next it's as if either you or He has dropped off the end of the world and the ability to communicate is vitually nil?! I'm determined to keep this blog as honest and in the "real world" as possible, hence this piece.
But all, actually, has not been darkness and gloom. Some strands of light have filtered into my sometimes gloomy mind to bring some encouragement. One could say that I began this blog challenge in response to what James says (4:8), "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." But anyone who takes this seriously soon discovers that it is not a journey lightly entered into.
Few things are as disturbing and unnerving when seeking to have an intimate relationship with God then to be met with dead silence. Of course, a multitude of thoughts and voices, all clamoring to be heard, can also be disquieting. But there's nothing like silence to challenge our assumptions of God (and ourselves).
I don't want this to be a place where I take up alot of space to dump all my thoughts and reflections. Rather I want it to be a place of encouragement to others who are on a similar journey. As I said, despite much silence, encouraging thoughts have come, most related to Scriptures. I will quote the Scriptures and let you interact and reflect on them as you wish.
"When the people saw the thunder and lightening and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in
smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance...while Moses approached the thick
darkness where God was." (Ex. 20:18-21)
"Do not make for yourselves an idol...For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealaous God."
(Deut. 4:23-24)
"Come near to God and he will come near to you...Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he
will lift you up." (James 4:8,10)
Bonhoeffer, the German minister who died at the hands of the Nazis, sums it up this way:
"When Jesus bids us follow him, he bids us come and die."
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Week #1 - "Be a Champ"
Before I tell family and friends about this blog I wanted to go through a whole week of this "experiment" of turning off the radio at work so I could have something (hopefully) positive to report. As has happened in the past, most of the time nothing other than quietness "happens". Of course my own thoughts come and go. Sometimes my mind can be amazingly blank, but at other times my mind can be in overdrive and full of many thoughts. An obvious question that one has to wrestle with in this kind of an exercise is determining how to distinguish what is of God and what isn't. A good place to begin is James' description (3:17) of "the wisdom that comes from heaven". When God speaks it will be "pure . . . peaceful, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere (without hypocrisy)". Another clue for me, is when a thought pops into my head that doesn't sound like something I could come up with on my own - it just doesn't "sound like me."
At one point during the week when the thoughts were few and far between, the impression (some thoughts are so "light" and fleeting that I simply call them impressions) came to me that it felt good to simply relax and be at peace in the presence of God, like a child who is curled up on her Daddy's lap. Later in the week I associated this impression with the image of our dog, Champ who, in typical dog fashion, loves to quietly lie down near me whenever I'm working in the garden or doing something outside. He doesn't require me to show him any special attention. He's simply totally content to know that he is near his master. And for a fleeting moment I knew that I was enjoying that same peace and contentment while I was at work. I didn't need to be "hearing" God speak to me. I could be fully content just knowing that He was near.
To give you an example of how "my thoughts" will sometimes interact with what I believe are genuinely God's thoughts, at one point I decided to ask God to reveal hidden sins. After all, an important part of revival, of drawing closer to God, is being convicted of sin and repenting. After waiting a good while and not having any convictions of sin coming to mind, I experienced a perfectly natural thing for a painter. I overloaded my brush with too much paint and some of it began to drip on the floor. Moments later the thought came to me. "Just as that brush had too much paint loaded onto it, you already have enough "loaded" on your "brush" (or as the more common expression puts it, I already had enough on my plate)." I sensed that God was telling me that I didn't need to be convicted of any more sins right now. It was sufficient that I focus on this one thing of turning off the radio and becoming more receptive to whatever He wanted to communicate to me." BE A CHAMP! Learning to slow down, to quiet myself in the presence of God and to simply be totally content in His presence - that was enough to focus on for now. Any more and it would simply drop off as from an overloaded brush and be wasted.
The acid test of whether or not this was simply another thought of my overactive mind, or a genuine communication ("word") from God, came on the drive home Friday evening. Usually, after a week of work and doing the grocery shopping before heading home on Friday, I'm sufficiently tired that listening to the radio is all I have the energy to do. But I truly surprised myself by leaving the radio off and . . . singing! Occasionally I will sing on the way to work in the morning, but never on the way home when I'm tired - this was truly a new experience! But get this. As if to drive home a point something else happened. Right in the middle of one of the worship songs that I was singing, I felt the car hesitate as it was changing gears. This happened not once, but twice, and it felt just like a previous car I had when the transmission began to go bad on it. But the amazing thing is, I just kept on singing and felt totally at peace despite the prospect of our car needing major work ($$$$) done on it! I just "knew" that everything would be alright, that I didn't need to worry. Now that didn't sound like merely a "Bruce Jones thought" to me!
So, there you go. Anybody who wants to join me on this adventure of "tuning into God" and "tuning out" the distractions, feel free to share your stories on this blog. You can do this one of two ways: either tell your stories in the "comments" spot, or email them to me (barajones@gmail.com) and I will post them on this blog.
"God is not too good to be true. He is so good He must be true." - George MacDonald
At one point during the week when the thoughts were few and far between, the impression (some thoughts are so "light" and fleeting that I simply call them impressions) came to me that it felt good to simply relax and be at peace in the presence of God, like a child who is curled up on her Daddy's lap. Later in the week I associated this impression with the image of our dog, Champ who, in typical dog fashion, loves to quietly lie down near me whenever I'm working in the garden or doing something outside. He doesn't require me to show him any special attention. He's simply totally content to know that he is near his master. And for a fleeting moment I knew that I was enjoying that same peace and contentment while I was at work. I didn't need to be "hearing" God speak to me. I could be fully content just knowing that He was near.
To give you an example of how "my thoughts" will sometimes interact with what I believe are genuinely God's thoughts, at one point I decided to ask God to reveal hidden sins. After all, an important part of revival, of drawing closer to God, is being convicted of sin and repenting. After waiting a good while and not having any convictions of sin coming to mind, I experienced a perfectly natural thing for a painter. I overloaded my brush with too much paint and some of it began to drip on the floor. Moments later the thought came to me. "Just as that brush had too much paint loaded onto it, you already have enough "loaded" on your "brush" (or as the more common expression puts it, I already had enough on my plate)." I sensed that God was telling me that I didn't need to be convicted of any more sins right now. It was sufficient that I focus on this one thing of turning off the radio and becoming more receptive to whatever He wanted to communicate to me." BE A CHAMP! Learning to slow down, to quiet myself in the presence of God and to simply be totally content in His presence - that was enough to focus on for now. Any more and it would simply drop off as from an overloaded brush and be wasted.
The acid test of whether or not this was simply another thought of my overactive mind, or a genuine communication ("word") from God, came on the drive home Friday evening. Usually, after a week of work and doing the grocery shopping before heading home on Friday, I'm sufficiently tired that listening to the radio is all I have the energy to do. But I truly surprised myself by leaving the radio off and . . . singing! Occasionally I will sing on the way to work in the morning, but never on the way home when I'm tired - this was truly a new experience! But get this. As if to drive home a point something else happened. Right in the middle of one of the worship songs that I was singing, I felt the car hesitate as it was changing gears. This happened not once, but twice, and it felt just like a previous car I had when the transmission began to go bad on it. But the amazing thing is, I just kept on singing and felt totally at peace despite the prospect of our car needing major work ($$$$) done on it! I just "knew" that everything would be alright, that I didn't need to worry. Now that didn't sound like merely a "Bruce Jones thought" to me!
So, there you go. Anybody who wants to join me on this adventure of "tuning into God" and "tuning out" the distractions, feel free to share your stories on this blog. You can do this one of two ways: either tell your stories in the "comments" spot, or email them to me (barajones@gmail.com) and I will post them on this blog.
"God is not too good to be true. He is so good He must be true." - George MacDonald
Sunday, December 7, 2008
How this blog came about
Normally I am not one to spend time blogging or doing stuff on electronic devices. I'm more of an outdoor person and prefer getting dirty in the garden. But I had an experience recently that led to my starting this blog. Actually, this started about 15 years ago when I was commuting 45 minutes to work and would fill up the commute time with listening to the radio. At one point back then I felt a "conviction" that I needed to turn off the radio and give God a chance to speak into the quietness. I discovered then, and in the intervening years, that this was not an easy thing to do (as my inability to do this consistently will atest). But I have come to believe that God will only give His wisdom to those who will treasure it enough to give Him the time of day.
Last Friday, after sensing again the nudge to turn off the radio (at work where I'm usually alone and can easily get bored with my work), I committed myself - this time with an increased sense of urgency - to working in the quiet to allow God to speak into my quietness. Along with this personal commitment I also sensed that I should start this blog as a challenge to others. I want this to be a place where we can share what happens when we honor God in this way, thus mutually encouraging one another.
My goal in this is NOT to stir up a lot of spiritual, religious talk with everyone giving their two cents worth about what they think revival or spiritual awakenings are or should be. Frankly, I am fed up with talk. There is way too much talk. What I'm looking for is life, reality - specifically, God's life and His reality. There is a lot out there pretending to be God's reality and we're all guilty of confusing what is and what isn't of God. I'm not going to be the arbiter of what is and what isn't. We'll just have to trust God to give us the wisdom to sort it all out, as well as that "love [that] covers a multitude of sins".
What I DO want to do is challenge us all to begin tuning out those things in our life that are distracting and hindering us from being able to hear and receive what God wants to say and do in our lives. For me it is starting with something as simple as turning the radio off at work and allowing the quiet that results to be an opportunity for listening to the voice of God. For others it may be something totally different. The details of how you do it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're serious enough about getting to know God better that we are willing to change something in our lifestyle that will make it easier for God to speak into our lives. Personally, I feel like I am starving for the reality of God, even in the midst of a society that is filled with opportunities to hear talk about God. As we share our stories with each other, may we be like coals that, when brought together with others and blown on by the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) the warmth and light of Messiah will increase . ..
"Awake, O sleeper,
Rise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light!"
- from a first century church hymn, quoted by Paul in Ephesians 5:17
Last Friday, after sensing again the nudge to turn off the radio (at work where I'm usually alone and can easily get bored with my work), I committed myself - this time with an increased sense of urgency - to working in the quiet to allow God to speak into my quietness. Along with this personal commitment I also sensed that I should start this blog as a challenge to others. I want this to be a place where we can share what happens when we honor God in this way, thus mutually encouraging one another.
My goal in this is NOT to stir up a lot of spiritual, religious talk with everyone giving their two cents worth about what they think revival or spiritual awakenings are or should be. Frankly, I am fed up with talk. There is way too much talk. What I'm looking for is life, reality - specifically, God's life and His reality. There is a lot out there pretending to be God's reality and we're all guilty of confusing what is and what isn't of God. I'm not going to be the arbiter of what is and what isn't. We'll just have to trust God to give us the wisdom to sort it all out, as well as that "love [that] covers a multitude of sins".
What I DO want to do is challenge us all to begin tuning out those things in our life that are distracting and hindering us from being able to hear and receive what God wants to say and do in our lives. For me it is starting with something as simple as turning the radio off at work and allowing the quiet that results to be an opportunity for listening to the voice of God. For others it may be something totally different. The details of how you do it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're serious enough about getting to know God better that we are willing to change something in our lifestyle that will make it easier for God to speak into our lives. Personally, I feel like I am starving for the reality of God, even in the midst of a society that is filled with opportunities to hear talk about God. As we share our stories with each other, may we be like coals that, when brought together with others and blown on by the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) the warmth and light of Messiah will increase . ..
"Awake, O sleeper,
Rise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light!"
- from a first century church hymn, quoted by Paul in Ephesians 5:17
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