Hearing God's Voice

"For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.  He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.  He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings"  (Job 33:14-16, NLT).

"My sheep hear my voice..." (cf. John 10:27).  Jesus speaks to His children through any means, even the voice of a child, as in the case of St. Augustine.  God speaks once, yea, twice, and man hears Him not, according to Job:  "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it.  In a dream, a vision of the night, When sound sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds, Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction"  (Job 33:14-16, NASB).  No one can claim they've never been the recipient of God's messages, no matter how limited--when he reacts positively, he opens the door to more opportunity.  C. S. Lewis has said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pains!

Mystics claim a special ear to God's messages like Joan of Arc did, and to put some trust in them is not in the one firm foundation--this is how cults begin.  If God speaks to you on a personal level for encouragement, that's between you and God, and is personal--don't feel you should share it.  To prophesy to the church is another gift of communication.  In these last days, the Word of the Lord is rare and, since we have the complete revelation of God in the Bible, it is not needed--the Word is all we need, clear and sufficient!  If God speaks to you, you must test it with the truth of Scripture.  We are not receiving new revelations anymore since God's Word is complete and the canon is closed, and to add to His Word brings on a judgment of God.

Now, to the point of God speaking to everyone:  God woos His elect to open their eyes to the truth of the gospel message and to soften their hearts--no one would otherwise believe.  If you believe that God woos everyone, you must also ask if He woos everyone equally.  If He woos everyone equally, why do some respond and others don't?  You are faced with either believing in the sovereignty of God's grace in salvation or the necessity of some kind of merit of the person getting saved.

The Arminian will not admit that God doesn't even woo some, but he doesn't know why some people respond to the gospel, and others don't!  Romans 5:21 says that grace reigns through righteousness. Grace is sovereign and efficacious, in other words, and that means that God gets the desired effect and it works for His purposes, not being wasted.  God isn't frustrated and doesn't say,  "Well, I tried to save you, but you were too far gone!"  We are all bad, but not too bad to be saved!

Some people do need greater wooing and more intense grace to become believers, but they are not a bigger challenge to God, just more opportunity to demonstrate His grace and how effectual it is.  God doesn't destine people to hell as if they had no choice in the matter like some blind fate or kismet; however, He does let some go their own way without His intervention of grace--He doesn't owe grace to anyone, or it would be justice; God doesn't have to save anyone!

Point in fact:  Distinguish between the inward and outward call of the gospel; the inward one is from God and is effectual, and the outward call from man sometimes falls on deaf ears and can, therefore, be ineffectual.   God's Word says that He's never let the world without a witness (cf. Acts 14:17)--everyone has had the opportunity to hear from God!  Paul says He is not far from every one of us!

In summation, we are not to seek "voices" or special revelation, and we shouldn't feel left out if we have no extra-biblical experience, such as a vision, divine voice, or visitation.  The existence of Scripture as God's written Word does not preclude God's audible voice or any oral communication.  God has promised to speak to us in His Word which is all He has to say to us and need not be improved upon.  We must be faithful to the Word first, though other forms of communication are not retired!  The sheep hear God: "... Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice"  (John 18:37, ESV).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Evil's Facade

"... [Y]ou hate all evildoers"  (Psalm 5:5, ESV).  "... I will fear no evil..." (Psa. 23:4, ESV).
"The fear of the LORD is the hatred of evil..." (Proverbs 8:13, ESV).
"What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil..." (Isaiah 5:20, ESV).
"Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good"  (Romans 12:21, ESV).
"Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight"  (Psalm 51:4, NLT).  "Will those who do evil never learn?" (Psalm 14:4, NLT).
"There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing evil..." (Rom. 2:9, NLT).
"... 'All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil'"  (2 Tim. 2:19, NLT).
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, ESV). (According to St. Augustine:  Man has the inability not to sin or non posse non peccare in Latin.)

Man is not basically good, but inherently evil to his core and is radically corrupt through and through and must be redeemed by God to be able to do anything good; in his fallen state, he cannot do anything but sin and evil.  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"   (Jer. 17:9, ESV).  Isaiah 1 says:  We are to cease to do evil, and learn to do good! ("Depart from evil, and do good..." (Psa. 37:27, ESV).

Evil doesn't advertise or promote itself by that moniker but tries to convince one of its good intentions to bring about the greater good as the end result.  If something is not done God's way, it's the devil's way.  God is able to work with evil and tolerates its existence because He can turn it into good (like curses into blessings), and there is a lot more evil to work with!  What evil is, is not what people would suppose:  It's goodness without God in the picture or the equation (like humanism that deifies man and makes him the measure of all things, the starting point of the equation, and dethrones God as dead and no longer relevant.  God turns evil into good:  "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good"  (cf. Gen. 50:20).  There is no yin/yang or an equal balance of good and evil; however, Satan masquerades as an angel of light (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).

We must become familiar with our common foe, or we will become like him, a do-gooder, who is trying to save humanity his way.  There is only one person who is good, God.  We do not have the power to harness the power of evil for good, like in Star Wars where they use the powers of the dark side.  Christ annihilated evil and defeated it in toto at the cross and we are only here to proclaim His victory and to claim His authority.  There is no such thing as pure evil, for evil, depends on good for its very existence; it's the privation of good; the deviation from good; the negation of goodness; and the perversion of goodness.

Satan was once good with no evil, but then pride was found in his heart and he fell and was booted out of heaven and his place of authority.  Satan is not coequal with God, such as a yin/yang type working arrangement, but only a servant of God who must obey.  There is now a cosmic battle or angelic conflict going on between Satan and his minions, and Christ, the church, and the elect angels on the other side.

We all have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in a sense, and are not innocent in God's eyes and are responsible for the light we have to be faithful and fruitful.  It is good to be innocent of evil as much as possible and to be wise to what is good.  Don't practice the occult nor magic arts and don't experiment with evil in any way, shape, or form.

It all started when Satan challenged authority and asked Eve, "Hath God said..?"  By her own volition Eve took of the forbidden fruit and the result of the so-called proverbial apple saga still goes on as it epitomized all sin in that one act of obedience--they only had one rule to obey and couldn't do it!

Today's youth are concerned more about what works than what's true, and they believe the test of an idea is not its truth value, but its results.  The sorry result is that something can work and not be true or good, e.g., Yoga, or TM.  These are not forbidden activities in Scripture, but nevertheless evil in that they circumvent the goodness and wisdom of God.  Christianity is not true because it works, it works because it's true!   Youth are concerned if something works for them and is practical or pragmatic, while God demands obedience and loyal faithfulness not to experiment with other religions or philosophies.

For example, to the innocent bystander or outside observer Yoga may seem innocent enough, but Yoga is a Hindu art that means union with God, and you learn to get in touch with one of their gods.  People are lured and enticed into Eastern philosophy and religion, by such innocent-like practices that have mass appeal to man as being "good."

Heed the following caveats of 1 Thess. 5:22 (ESV), Job 28:28 (ESV), 1 Pet. 3:12 (HCSB); and Rom. 12:9 (ESV) respectively:  "Abstain from every form of evil";  "...'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding'";  "... BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL"; "... Abhor what is evil; hold fast what is good."  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Punishment Of God

"Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished"  (Psalms 91:8, NLT).
"But I will punish you [the nation Israel] according to the fruit of your doings..."  (Jer. 14:21, KJV).
"You [Israel] only have I known of all the families of the earth:  therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities"  (Amos 3:2, KJV). 
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains."  (C. S. Lewis).  
"Why should a living man complain, a man about the punishment of his sins?"  (Lam. 3:39, ESV).

God has forgiven all our sins (past, present, and future) at the cross, judging them in the blood of Christ on our behalf and there is no double jeopardy with God's justice.  However, on the other hand, God's children are not without divine discipline, pruning, and corrective action. He will do virtually anything to mold us in His image and to dislodge any un-Christlike flaw He sees.  Do not equate punishment with pruning, viva la difference!  When we bear fruit, God prunes us in order that we bear more fruit and sometimes this is inconvenient and unwelcome, but it's for our own good.  We can be assured that all that befalls us is Father-filtered and the devil cannot wreak havoc on our lives without His divine approval.  He has no power to even touch us! 1 John 5:18

If we are without discipline when we are wayward, we are not children (Heb. 12:5ff), for what child isn't corrected by a loving parent?  "Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?" (Lam. 3:39, NLT).  "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.  Be zealous therefore and repent." Rev. 3:19  If God were to actually punish us for our sins, we'd have to go to hell for ever to suffer for them!  But there is no double jeopardy with God.  God has judged our sins on the cross, but we will reap the consequences of what we sow according to Galatians 6:7 and that means we don't get away with sin, even as believers!  If we sow the wind, we'll reap the whirlwind (cf. Hos. 8:7).

As one of Job's friends said, God had punished him less than he deserved (we all are given mercy and are given less chastisement than deserved--there's no karma or cause and effect relationship between actions and events):  "What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us [Israel] less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this"  (Ezra 9:13, NIV).  God always tempers His justice with mercy. Habakkuk 3:2   Zophar speaks in Job 11:6 (ESV): Know then that God exacts of you [punishes] less than your guilt deserves."  Eliphaz challenged Job: Whoever perished being innocent? (Job 4:7).

God punishes nations (like the great Nineveh) for their injustice and cruelty; however, we are always judged individually.  We are to behold the "goodness and severity of the Lord" (cf. Romans 11:22). God is treating us as children, so try to conceive of how much severer the punishment will be for those who trample on the Son of God putting Him to open shame (cf. Heb. 10:29)?  Let us heed the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119:67 (NLT) in summation:  "I used to wander off until you disciplined me, but now I closely follow your word." ("Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept thy word," in the KJV).  Soli Deo Gloria!

Get A Life!

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men"  (John 1:4, ESV, italics added).  
"[Y]et I will rejoice in the LORD!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation"  (Habakkuk 3:18, NLT).  
"Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living." --Thomas a Kempis
"The unexamined life is not worth living." --Socrates

Jesus did indeed say, "I am ... the life!"  Note well that He didn't affirm "a" life with an indefinite article, but "the" life with a definite article. There's no other life to be had!  He is not one of many ways to life, nor the best way, but the only way to life (eternal).  When they say we should get a life, they are often talking in the temporal and not in light of the eternal, for we are just pilgrims passing through on our way to eternity.  Only those who know Jesus are really alive, the others are dead spiritually; for Jesus came not to make bad people good, but dead people alive, according to C. S. Lewis.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1, ESV), and God made us alive in the Spirit through faith in Christ.  Dead people can do naught to please God, much less have faith, and so God had to quicken faith within us and awaken our spirits with the power to believe.  You are alive for the first time spiritually when you are born again or born from above,  i.e., born of the Spirit. As children of God, we share in the blessings and life of the kingdom of God.

We do not want to merely get a temporal life with all the world has to offer, when this pales in comparison to all the blessings we have in Christ.  Joy, for instance, is a Christian trait of being able to rejoice under any circumstance and see that God is still in control, "... for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10, ESV).

Man was not made for idleness, but for work and we must find our calling and fulfill God's purpose for us ("For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep ..," Acts 13:36, ESV). We're here for a purpose--God's purpose-- and we are to be like Christ, who was "a man on a mission" par excellence.  People who don't know their purpose try to accomplish too much, but when we focus we get more done, because "you become effective by being selective," it's been said. Don't be fooled or sidetracked by what the world has to offer, nor love the world, for our citizenship is in heaven, and we know that because He lives, we shall also live eternally with Him in glory.

The happiness the world knows is shallow and transitory, and depends upon happenings, while our joy no one can take from us and is a fruit of the Spirit.  All the things that man seeks:  importance, impact, and identity are found in a relationship with Christ.  Only the Christian worldview answers the questions we face today with any certitude and consistency--it applies to all of life and all academia's disciplines. Too many people are on elusive pursuits of dreams they cannot achieve or think that riches, power, and fame will bring them fulfillment. We are designed for God and according to Blaise Pascal:  "If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If he is made for God, why is he opposed to God?

Henry David Thoreau said that "if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears a different drummer."  There is only one true drummer to hear:  Jesus!  Two instruments tuned to the same pitch will be in tune with each other, and that's why Christians all everywhere are in fellowship with each other--they share the common bond of Christ.

The biggest mistake in thinking some make is to think that they have to be a success to amount to anything:  Mother Teresa of Calcutta says we are not called to success, but to faithfulness!   Einstein said we shouldn't strive to become a person of success, but of value!  That's it: We are vessels of honor fit for God's service and purpose and we are merely to bear fruit where He has planted us.

In the final analysis, getting a life doesn't entail achieving the American dream, making impressions, or accomplishing anything on our own, but to be used by God in His service, bringing glory to Him (Isaiah 43:7 says this is our purpose).  Knowing who you are in Christ is far more important than achieving, for God doesn't want our achievements, He wants us!  In short, don't just get a life, get life itself, the life only found in Christ.  In sum, even Paul said that he ventured not to boast of anything but of what Christ had accomplished through him (cf. Romans 15:18).
Soli Deo Gloria!