"Speak, Your Servant Is Listening"

"... 'Listen to me, you wise men.  Pay attention, you who have knowledge'"  (Job 34:1, NLT).
"Now listen to me if you are wise. Pay attention to what I say" (Job 34:16, NLT). 
"Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart..." (Jer. 15:16, ESV).

Samuel was advised to assure God he was listening under the condition that God would surely speak and he was God's servant. God speaks to His servants!   Samuel was all ears, so to speak, and was attentive to God's message from then on: "Speak, for your servant hears."   For at Shiloh God revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word (cf. 1 Sam. 3:21)--the primary channel of communication.  People often have a failure to communicate with God and turn a deaf ear to Him; however, God says that "to hearken is better than the fat of rams,"  (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22).  We must always be ready and have the communication link open to God in prayer, as we walk with God and "practice the presence of God", like Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century Carmelite monk, wrote about and experienced.

 When we are in sync with God and in tune with His will He speaks through the Word, which is exalted above all (cf. Ps. 138:2) and we rejoice as one who finds great spoil (cf. Ps. 119:162).  Jeremiah rejoiced at God's Word and delighted in what he read as you might call an "Aha!" moment (cf. Jer. 15:16).  God hasn't retired dreams or visions (cf. Joel 2:28), but He chooses to teach us and speak through His Word primarily.  Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice and those who are of the truth hear Him (cf. John 10:27, 37).  We learn to listen up as God speaks to us and is ready, no matter the means of communication.

Just because we have the written Word doesn't preclude God's audible voice today--God can speak through an air vent or duct if He so chooses, but this is highly unusual. "For God does speak--now one way, now another --though no one perceives it--in a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls on people as the slumber in their beds, e may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings," (cf. Job 33;14-16, NIV).   The command is given to Israel which became their credo was called the Shema or "to hearken" in English (cf. Deut. 6:4).  We are not to get mystical and seek experiences with our emotions or extra-biblical revelation.  C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.  It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."  We can grow spiritually hard-of-hearing and need to be disciplined by God to get back on track and in His will.

God promises that His Word "will not return void " and He will honor it wherever it goes (cf. Isaiah 55:11).  Sometimes we are the ears and voice of God and He uses us to get through to stubborn, prodigal, or wayward children.  The Bible is to be taken seriously, as also Bible study and church preaching and it's not entertainment, a way to pass time or just something to do in our boredom.  To turn away from hearing God makes our prayers an abomination (cf. Prov. 28:9).  We are to pay attention to God's plumb line of our spiritual progress and not grieve the Spirit or ignore the Word.  We have the privilege of interpreting the Word, but with this comes the responsibility of doing it right.

No one has a monopoly on wisdom and no prophecy is of any private interpretation (cf. 2 Pet. 1:20); God will not reveal some far-fetched revelation to us from some isolated passage that He shows no one else or belongs only to you.  There is safety in the multitude of counselors and he who heeds advice is wise, not thinking he knows it all or is wise in his own eyes.

Prayer is a two-way link with God, whereby we boldly enter His throne room (cf. Heb. 4:16) and into His dimension and God will speak to us in that inner voice if we listen (cf. Isaiah 30:21, "You shall hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it").  We are all called to be listeners and sometimes listening is a greater gift than speaking and someone may need a sympathetic ear.  We can tell them, "I hear you!"  We should be all ears and readily offer love by listening. Jesus told John that whoever has an ear to hear, should hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  If we don't listen, God will harden our hearts and we will become insensitive and stubborn (cf. Isaiah 6:10).

God can speak through anyone He chooses and we are vessels of honor and can be used:  Augustine heard the voice of a child say, "Take and read, take and read."  This led to his conversion and he was convinced God spoke through that child to his inner need.  Remember, it's an honor to be used by God and be ready to offer a listening ear and say, "I'm all ears," to anyone in need.  We are always vigilant and prepared to obey God's voice no matter the message:  Do you hear what I hear? or just what you want to hear?    Soli Deo Gloria!  

Who Moved The Stone?

"For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead"  (Acts 17:31, NLT).  

A huge stone was rolled in front of the tomb and soldiers were set to guard it till the third day, for the Pharisees knew Christ had foretold his resurrection and they were given permission to make it as secure as they knew how.  This stone would've required several men to move it and couldn't have been done in the middle of the night secretly without waking the guards if they were sleeping--but they would be in trouble for sleeping on duty--punishment could be death.  The soldiers testified that someone stole the body while they were asleep!  Never in the history of jurisprudence has the testimony of someone been accepted from while they were asleep.

There is much circumstantial evidence that Christ rose from the dead:  the graveclothes were undisturbed as if Christ had passed through them in spirit (who would steal a body without clothes?);  the most convincing proof is that the body was gone--how does one explain that?  Everyone knew where the tomb was and could've verified this fact--Christ was missing in action!  If you could produce a body the movement of Christianity would be stopped!  Look at all the martyrs as witnesses, and the record of the apostles, as eyewitnesses:  People will die for what they believe is true, but not for a known lie!

Note that Christ was seen by eyewitnesses who went to their deaths testifying of their veracity and truth--they could've saved their own skins by admitting a hoax--one usually tells the truth when facing death!  Note that they were in a position to know the truth, and not just fanatics convinced by some tall tale, myth or fable!   But the biggest miracle of all is the transformation of the lives of the apostles from demoralized followers to bold witnesses not afraid of death anymore.

Other circumstantial evidence is amazing and cannot be explained away so easily:  the changing of the worship day to Sunday or the Lord's Day; the rise of the church; the way the disciples turned the world upside down; the miracle of the New Testament and its historical proofs and accuracy.  Many theories have been advanced that attempt to explain away the resurrection:  the swoon theory that Christ didn't actually die (this is debunked by the fact that no one could have survived in a cold tomb half-dead and then convince the followers that he conquered death and give them hope of eternal life); the wrong tomb theory is debunked because everyone knew where it was and could've verified or debunked the testimony of the apostles; the theory that the apostle or even the authorities stole the body is not worth refuting because they had no motive!  The authorities and the Jews were trying to quash the rumors and refute their spirited preaching!

Paul preached the resurrection at Mars Hill in Athens where intellectuals gathered and it was the philosophical capital of the known world and they scoffed at the idea of a resurrection, but some believed!   People were skeptical back then just as they are today!  Luke opens his book of Acts saying that there are "many infallible proofs" of the resurrection!  Thomas Arnold, a famous historian, said that no fact in history is better attested than the resurrection.  Finally, you can "taste and see that the Lord is good" and find out for yourself:  I don't have to prove it to you because you can experience Christ personally and find out for yourself!

God is no man's debtor and will authenticate Himself to any honest seeker of truth who doesn't close his mind and searches out the evidence.  In fact, according to evidence experts from jurisprudence, if the facts of the resurrection were presented to any objective jury in the world, it would conclude and render the verdict that Christ actually did rise from the dead--there's no evidence to the contrary!  If you examine the evidence with an open mind you will be convinced, even against your will because it cannot be denied as fact.

The only way to deny without committing intellectual suicide is to have the presupposition that Christ couldn't have risen from the dead and that the historical records are thus inaccurate and unreliable. The question of whether God can raise the dead is philosophical, not scientific, and it ultimately depends upon the veracity of the witnesses and the credibility of the records presented as evidence. Just because men don't generally rise from the dead doesn't prove that God can't do it!  All science can posit is that people don't usually rise from the dead; miracles are unusual events caused by God.

This Gibraltar of the faith is either the biggest and cruelest hoax perpetrated on mankind, or it's the most wonderful, blessed newsworthy gospel message ever heard or disseminated.   It's not a matter of faith versus reason, but which set of presuppositions you commence within your reasoning. The resurrection, according to Dr. D. James Kennedy, is arguably the best-attested fact of antiquity. "Indeed, taking all the evidence together ... there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.  Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency of the proof of it" (Canon B. F. Westcott, a scholar at Cambridge).  One-time historical events are not subject to scientific verification or scrutiny! Indeed,  His cruel death was not the end of Him!   Soli Deo Gloria!