When God is Silent

When it's time to share a message at PHCC I spend time asking Holy Spirit, "What do you want us to share?" Holy Spirit has never let me down in answering that question. However, the answer is not always, shall we say, 'eloquent'. Holy Spirit usually grunts out a one word answer or a question!

Today, the answer was a question, "What does it mean when God is silent?" Thanks a lot, Holy Spirit! LOL.

Since right now not all of our parishioners read this blog, I can share with you the answer to that question without revealing tonight's message.

My first thought was we, as believer, are called sheep and I wondered what sheep do when they don't hear the shepherd's voice. I know the Bible says His sheep always hear his voice. What should be understood in that verse is we hear His voice when He speaks.

Christians say some stupid things as, "God is always speaking, we're just not always listening." That's a really dumb thing to say because it contradicts the Word. The Word says His sheep hear his voice. Does that mean if we don't hear, we're not sheep? No. Why do we think God always talks? The scripture gives account of times when God is silent.

Revelation 8 says there was silence in Heaven. Hmmmmm, guess God had nothing to say at that point. In Genesis, after God was finished with Creation, God looked at what He had made. Was He talking while He was looking. I think not. After He looked He said, "It is good." In the Hebrew what He said was, "Beautiful!"

I just heard a speaker teach a whole message on the word 'good', but they didn't realize it should be 'beautiful'. It was amusing.

Back to the subject at hand. . . thinking of sheep, the shepherd speaks when there is danger, when action is needed, when soothing or correction are needed. Other than those incidences, the shepherd would have no reason to speak to the sheep unless the shepherd just wants to do so. During those times of silence, the sheep graze, rest and procreate.

Job didn't hear God for 37 verses and when God finally answered, God asked Job a question which was basically, "Where were you when I . . . . ?"

When the prodigal son returned to the father, the father didn't speak to him! No, he didn't! The father spoke to the servants instructing them to prepare a feast. Psalm 23 indicates the great Shepherd prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

Perhaps the silence of God means God is preparing the Bridal Feast for us. While God does that and there is silence, perhaps we should graze on the Word of God, rest in His peace and reproduce believers through salvation for the Kingdom of God, the family!

Absentee Blogger

I'm ashamed to see how long it has been since I blogged! It's not that I haven't been working the internet presence. With two websites, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and two publishing sites, not to mention email, I've been firmly placed in www-land.

Having recently preached to the congregation, the value of having a message and disseminating said message, it is no accident that my blog came back on my radar.

So, here goes. . .

How's your relationship with God been lately? Have you visited God recently? Have you 'called' God in the Spirit? Have you toured second and third heaven? Just checking.

Ignoring God doesn't effect the Supreme Being as much as it robs us. Spending time with God preserves our sense of well-being. It prevents us from feeling God is upset with us. It promotes spiritual awareness making us more effective as a Christian believer in our sphere of influence.

And. . . it's fun!

One Christian leader had a conversation with God. It went something like this:

God: 'You know how all things lost in Adam are restored in Christ?'
Believer: 'Yes, Lord?'
God: 'Well Adam had a garden.'
Believer: 'I know that, Lord.'
God: 'What if I gave you a garden?'
Believer: 'A garden?'
God: 'Yes, you have a garden, a heavenly garden. And you can visit it anytime.'

That conversation began a new dimension in intimacy with God for that believer and for a lot of us who realized the truth of God's gift.

I visit my garden often, not as often as I could, but often. It's beautiful and I am constantly discovering new areas of that garden. It's peaceful. When I visit my garden frequently, I find life goes well. Of course, the Lord shows up in the garden as well. It is 'our place' besides the throne room of course.

There are orchards, vineyards, an ocean, waterfalls, beautiful flowers. I don't have to work to plant anything. I just think it and whatever I thought is there. Of course it's all good stuff, nothing bad that doesn't belong.

One day I realized that the vines in the vineyard were not held up by wire as they are on earth. I could run through the vines and not be tangled. The vines would dance with and around me. I finally laid down laughing after a particularly lively jaunt through the vines.

Then I saw them. . . I saw sandaled feet coming toward me under the vines. Just above the feet was the hem of a robe and dripping from the robe was beautiful sweet red wine. I realized that the same wine was dripping from the grapes, but the grapes were not crushed or withered.

Of course, the feet belonged to my Jesus. He had the biggest smile on his face! He had been watching me dance among the vines and it brought Him joy. Oh, how I love Him and how He loves me!

Now, why not go play in your garden?

This week we (the staff at PHCC) spoke to our new website designer who was singing the praises of blogging. She said it's the latest and greatest thing for pastors to do. "All the rage!"

OK

But, really, many pastors are turning to blogging to communicate with ever growing congregations. However, recently we had a meeting with a congregant (fancy word for someone who goes to church with us) and they were offended by something in an email. I pointed out that with written communication you can't hear the tone of voice or see the facial expressions or the eyes and sometimes we read the emails and insert the wrong intentions for the writer.

I'm a bit concerned about that in blogging AND I'm remembering how we used to worry that people would lose the 'art' of letter writing. . . no danger there with email and blogging and texting!

That said, we can understand too why God looks on the 'inward man' meaning He sees what's in your heart. We humans do a lot of things to hide our true feelings if we think letting them out will hurt us. But we can't hide from God. He won't hurt us. He loves us.

I challenge you to do the same. . . look beneath the surface. Seek to know the heart of people. Those are true friends. In an ever shrinking world, due to technology, we often call people whom we have never met 'friends'. And you may indeed be friendly toward each other from a distance, but a TRUE friend is a CLOSE friend. They are someone who has seen you in person and remembers your mannerisms and knows enough about you to understand the thinking behind your words.

We should be TRUE friends with God. I know we can't literally SEE Him, but we can read Him and know Him in the Spirit. He certainly knows us inside and out. Revisit the Bible today. There are many modern language versions and even online versions. They are easy to read and understand. Then consider talking with God. Have a conversation with Him. (John 4:24 God is a Spirit, so it's not actually a Him, but you get the idea)

Now I'm really wondering about the benefit of blogging because of no response. LOL

Just whining!

But, speaking of responses. There are many messages in the world. Their validity often depends on the response of the hearers. If enough people like the message, the message is deemed valid or even highly prized.

Take global warming for example. . . Al Gore was internationally recognized for his message on global warming. I recently saw a picture of a starving child in the Sudan who couldn't walk and a vulture was waiting for the child to die so it could feast.

That message got a lot less recognition than the plight of the polar bears' shrinking ice. So I'm thinking that the validity of a message should NOT be judged by it's reception.

The source of the message should be considered and we should discern whether the subject matter is of the utmost importance. Last I checked, while animals are important, they are not more important than people.

What did people who are worried about global warming think would happen when we add billions of people to the planet?

We've also had major tsunami's that actually changed the earth's orbit. That certainly will affect global weather conditions.

There is one message whose validity is certain and timeless. That message is about Jesus, the Son of God. His message? God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe on Him would not perish, but be saved.

John 3:16

I feel like I should attend bloggers anonymous. . . "Hi, I'm Linda and I forget to update my blog."

So much for confessions of a reluctant blogger.

Let's talk rules. Have you noticed that more and more people don't want to follow laws and/or rules?

I've thought about this a lot and my conclusion is to blame poor leadership and lack of a proper moral foundation.

You see, if authority figures fail over enough time, society losses any respect for them and in order not to be fooled, they simply reject all authority or limit the amount of influence they allow that authority in their lives.

The lack of respect for the rules starts small. For example, in Texas it's a rule or law that when it's rainy, you have to have your headlights on. People disregard that. Once you go there all traffic laws are fair game to break:

Speed limits
No Littering
Buckle Up
Wear a helmet on a motorcycle
Buckle your kids up
Don't pass in a no pass zone
No drinking alcohol and driving
Etc.

These are broken every day.

Then accidents happen, people are hurt and hurt worse than they need be, children are maimed or killed, insurance rates go up for everyone.

Breaking rules hurts others and brings down society.

In relationships, we lie, we cheat. In church, we are selfish and disrespectful to people who have given their lives in service to others.

At work, we come in late, leave early, take breaks that are too long, steal services and supplies.

I believe this all shows a low moral value or a lack of morals.

So where should we get moral value? The word of God. Not man's opinions or society's ever-changing value system (situational ethics).

Using that value system, here's some other things that are wrong:

• Talking about yourself most of the time
• Parking in a handicap zone when you're not handicapped
• Throwing your ATM receipt on the ground
• Defacing the property of another
• Premarital sex
• Illegal drug use
• Infidelity
• Cheating on your taxes
• Telling lies
• Jaywalking
• Mistreating animals in any way including overbreeding them
• Cussing in front of children (actually cussing at all)
• Letting children watch sexual activity on tv or movies
• Using children for sexual gratification
• Beating, burning, imprisoning, selling, microwaving, belittling children

There's more as you can imagine and I know this list goes from petty to serious.

I guess we need to ask ourselves, "What kind of person do I want to be?" If you want to be low thinking, low class, a user rather than a giver, a fighter rather than a peacemaker, then do these things. But if you want to be a good person, one who is appreciated and loved by others, one who is a benefit to society and not a drain, then consider the Bible, get some moral fiber and live a good life.

OK, I feel better. Hope it gave you something to think about.

Reluctant Blogger

OK, I give up! I'll come kicking and screaming into this century! LOL

As a pastor, I am blessed to have 30-somethings in the congregation. They all blog. At first I thought they said they clog (the Appalachian dance). They explained to me that blog was a way to communicate and network with the WORLD!

So. . . here I am, blogging. It doesn't seem painful so. . . ok.

Next issue: What to blog ABOUT? And, perhaps you can help with this. I am a female pastor of a non-denominational holy-spirit filled bible-believing church. (Can we get that on a bumper sticker?) So, you can imagine the topics I would like to blog about.

God is amazing.
Jesus is Lord.
The Bible is fascinating.
The Holy Spirit is powerful.
People on God are awesome.
Yes. . . women can pastor, preach, all that stuff.
No. . . I don't care if you disagree on any of these. They are all true whether you believe it or not.

Hey, I just remembered what I didn't like about blogging. It tends to make people think about themselves too much. (My, my, mine, mine, me, me, want to see my thoughts, you need to know what I think, I'm important!!) Therefore, unless asked a direct question, I'll try to make this about others.

See, God is all about thinking of others and not ourselves. He takes care of us and we take care of others and together, everyone gets care. Too simple? That's the kingdom of God. . . easy.

If you're a woman in ministry, let me know and if you've been hurt in church let me know (no names please), and if you want to know more about the Holy Spirit, let me know.

Later bloggers.