"TESTING! TESTING! DOES ANYONE HEAR ME?" - JESUS

You know either God's Word is truth or it is not.  Either it is inspired writing or it is not. There is no middle ground.  And everyone gets to decide what they think is the truth about the Bible and whether or not it is the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  

I believe it is utter truth.  Are there some parts of it that need explanation? Yup.  Does that make me doubt that it is the very Word of Very God. Nope.  I get to believe that. You get to believe whatever you want to believe.  It's called free will. 

I love God's Word.  He has allowed me to teach it to others.
I am HONORED to do so.  It is a miracle of His mercy toward me.

But....Those of us who have decided to follow Jesus sometimes forget that we are not presenting a Book to the world, but a Person. A real human being who lived a sinless life on earth, died and WAS RESURRECTED and is SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD.  

He is still living.
And He is still speaking. 

He said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
(John 10:27)

Can you hear Him?
If you cannot, it's not because He isn't speaking.  
He clearly says that HIS SHEEP listen to HIS voice.  
He doesn't lie.
He knows who His sheep are.
Because they follow HIM.
Following infers that He is leading somewhere.
Following indicates movement.  Going from "here" to "there." 
How can we follow Someone we cannot hear?
We cannot.

I am sad at times when I meet church going men and women who think that following Jesus is ONLY about going to church meetings and helping out at church meetings and going on a missions trip now and then and tithing.

Of course sheep hang out with sheep.  There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that the plan is to be a lone sheep,out there without other sheep.
But that's NOT ALL THERE IS TO FOLLOWING JESUS.

That's not what Jesus describes. 
All through the Gospels, Jesus describes His relationship with His Father as being close and real and intimately One. He hears His Father's voice.
He says that is the RELATIONSHIP He wants with us. 
We are not merely followers of a figurehead of an organization that bears His name and reads His words spoken thousands of years ago.
We are not JUST THAT.

His Sheep hear HIS VOICE.
If we cannot hear His voice, 
either we are NOT really His sheep or we are listening to too many other voices. 

I'm not saying to sit around until you hear voices in your head.. lol... 

But I AM saying that we shouldn't assume He will never speak to someone's heart, never speak to someone's thoughts.  That He will NEVER speak comfort, direction, love, mercy and grace to us.. personally.  

Does it happen every day?  Not for me.
But I know that through my lifetime, there have been moments when I clearly HEARD HIS VOICE....

Take the time to ask the Holy Spirit to help you HEAR the voice of Jesus. It isn't weird.  He speaks. To our hearts. In our thoughts. 

Jesus is speaking.
Do you hear Him?

THE CREATURES LOVE CREATED

"I have loved you with an everlasting love" -GOD

Today, Valentine's Day, people are saying "I love you" millions of times to millions of people.  It's the day that people are pressured, forced, lovingly buying candy, flowers, chocolates and jewelry so that she won't be angry will feel loved.
It's a happy day for many...
And a not-so-happy day for millions of people who have no one to say it to, and no one to say it to them.

LOVE.  Who could have warned us that nothing we accomplish will mean anything if we don't have love in our lives?  God tried. God tries. Mostly we ignore Him.

• Why didn't someone caution us to not allow that person who loved us with unconditional love to slip through our fingers?

• Why do we let someone who loves us the way we long to be loved  get away? 

• Why don't we do whatever it takes to, whatever it costs, to hold on to that Love? 

• Why do some children decide they don't need their parent's love?

• Why do some parents choose to love themselves more than their own child?

• Why don't Christians love each other the way we are told commanded to? 

• Why does Love hurt so much?

• How does Love heal so much?

Sometimes we value things MORE than we value love.

Sometimes we think our value is in things and not in LOVE.

No thing can fill the void left by no love

I have loved people who did not love me back.
I have loved people who did not love me as much as I loved them.
I have loved people who didn't see any value in the love I offered.
I have loved people who broke my heart.

In our - my - humanity I can convince myself that the way to heal a soft and broken heart is to harden it.

We believe that the person who does not love is the blessed one because the person who does not love does not hurt. 

We are not created to live without love.

Because it is LOVE Who CREATED US.
We, humans, are the creatures Love created.

Love (God) doesn't stop loving just because we don't love Him.
He keeps loving.
He keeps calling.
He keeps wanting.

True love never dies.  
But it cannot live in a hardened heart.
True love comes from heaven.
And it comes in to a NEW HEART given by God - who IS LOVE.

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

 Hebrews 4:7

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FORGETTING STUFF

See that face? This is what I look like several times a day when I find myself in a room in my house but don't remember WHY I went there in the first place. 

Yesterday, I walked away from my computer to get my reading glasses so that I could actually SEE what was on my computer.  I walked back in to my office three times WITHOUT my glasses. I'd get distracted by something, sit back down at the computer and then when all the words looked fuzzy, I'd remember why I got up in the first place. They say it's part of aging - this forgetting stuff.

I would say that it's also a sign of maturity.  The whole "forgetting stuff" thing is one of the keys to a peaceful, victorious life.  (You're welcome).

Forgetting stuff when it comes to people is extremely important.  Well, I mean, some people do some things that are not easy to forget.  Some people hurt you so deeply, betray you so utterly, that you'd have to have a lobotomy to forget. I guess the idea is to NOT DWELL on what they've done.  As we say in New York City, "fuggeddaboudit"...  

Make the choice to ask the Lord to help you to "forget" .. to move on..   You can run it over in your mind... and get angrier and angrier..   Sometimes I have to ask myself, "Why are you so determined to not forget this? What possible pleasure are you getting from remembering and dwelling on the pain they caused you?"  I never have a good answer. 

Forgetting stuff is also the way to walk in the freedom that Jesus came to give you.  Some of us have done things that are not easy to forget. We have hurt people, we have betrayed others and God so completely that we can hardly look in the mirror.  We have sinned. We have really sinned when we knew better.  In our brains we say that we know that God has forgiven us, but in our hearts we keep beating ourselves up, we keep expecting the other shoe of God's wrath to fall on our lives at any moment.  This is also a good time to ask yourself, "Why do I keep focusing on my failure? What possible good can come from refusing to forget I am a sinful but forgiven worm?"  This one has a simple answer.  His name is Satan.  He accuses.  Re-accuses. And Re-re-accuses.  The way to stop focusing on your failure is to REMEMBER that God says, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake and remembers you sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25)   God is the inventor and creator of the whole "forgetting stuff" idea.

Forgetting stuff includes forgetting the pleasure that comes from sinning.  You know, if every time we sinned it felt like someone was sticking a long needle in our eyeballs... none of us would sin.  Who wants to feel that kind of pain? But the Bible acknowledges that sin has pleasure (Heb.11:25) for a season.  

It feels good to be addicted.  There was a high that caused the world to go away. 
It felt good to commit adultery.  It was exciting. He made you feel like he was the only one who ever really truly loved you. 
It was wonderful to steal from your employer. You remember the days you were a hero with lots of cash.
Refusing to forget the pleasure of sin is the one sure way to forget the consequences of it.  A good question to ask is, "What am I gaining by remembering the pleasure of my sin?  How is it helping me to overcome it?"  This is another question that never seems to have a good answer.

Finally.. NEVER FORGET HOW GOOD GOD IS BEING TO YOU.  AND ME.
NEVER FORGET THAT STUFF.

Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. 

Psalm 103:2