Do You Hear What I Hear?

Recently while reading through Luke 8 I noticed how the headings that editors have added to the text can actually distract us from the continuity of the text. Verses 4-21 have a common thought, yet many Bibles break it up into multiple sections.

Verses 4-15 talk about the seed being sowed. In this and in the parallel passage in Matthew 13, Jesus explains that He is talking about how people respond when they hear the word of the kingdom. Those who truly hear the Word are those who act on it and bear fruit. Verse 16 at first seems to be a new thought, but really is just an example to illustrate what He has just said. Those who are hearing and are bearing fruit are lights shining in the darkness. If we’re hiding the light, we are failing to obey what we’ve been told. Then in verses 19-21 Jesus reiterates that those who hear His word and do it are part of His eternal family.

The question I’ve been asking myself is whether there are things God has told me to do that I am not doing. Am I really listening to what He has to say? I’ve been convicted on that this week in one particular area. I had made a decision based on human logic and didn’t really seek God’s will. It seemed pretty straightforward at the time, but there were unexpected complications that made me reverse the decision. What I heard from various Scriptures was “Are you going to trust Me with this?”

In the Bible there are many references to hearing and listening. The book of Proverbs alone has more than thirty admonitions to listen to God and His wisdom. “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance” (Proverbs 1:5 ESV). We all tend to hear what we want to hear. We listen to people who affirm our preconceived notions, while often ignoring those that challenge us.

We need constant exposure to words of truth. As Jimmy Needham wrote, “You cannot love [God] with all your heart, soul, and mind without a steady diet of Scripture.” I would suggest that should include both reading and listening. We need to see the words on the pages of our Bibles, but we also need to hear it taught and explained in the fellowship of a local church. I am continually surprised by the statistics of how many people who call themselves Christians don’t read the Bible and/or don’t participate in weekly worship. Some of them may one day hear the dreaded words, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). If we aren’t hearing and following, can we really say that we know Him?

As we prepare for a new year, perhaps we all need to make a greater effort to hear and heed what God is saying to us. We may discover we’ve been tuning Him out more than we realize.

“This is my beloved Son; listen to Him” (Mark 9:7b).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Silence

After reading a biography of Fred Rogers, I just started reading The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, by Amy Hollingsworth. The first chapter got me thinking about silence. In an interview with Fred Rogers he said,

“I think, for me, I need to be myself... And so, for me, being quiet and slow is being myself, and that is my gift... It seems to me, though, that our world needs more time to wonder and to reflect about what is inside, and if we take time we can often go much deeper as far as our spiritual life is concerned than we can if there’s constant distraction. And often television gives such constant distraction—noise and fast-paced things—which doesn’t allow us to take time to explore the deeper levels of who we are—and who we can become.”

Hollingsworth goes on to say:

“Yale psychologists comparing Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to Sesame Street... discovered that children were better able to follow the stories on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood than the faster-paced, hip and hip-hopping world of Sesame Street. Another study concluded that Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood led to an increase in ‘tolerance of delay,’ meaning that children in the study who watched the program were more likely to be patient in waiting for materials or for an adult’s attention.”

Now I don’t have a degree in child development (though I do have one in Educational Ministries), but it seems to me that we need to take a step back and look at the world we are creating with our instant gratification and “always on” media. I’d say the vast majority of the Western world is overstimulated, and we are reaping the consequences in our schools and churches and families. Hollingsworth includes this quote from the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, “We will make the whole universe a noise in the end.” I don’t think we are far off from that now.

Conversely, Scripture is replete with references to “be silent,” “be still,” and “wait.”

• “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent” (Psalm 4:4 ESV).
• “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted in the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10).
• “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him” (Psalm 62:5).
• “But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Habakkuk 2:20).
• “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near” (Zephaniah 1:7a).

As Christians, most of us would say we want to hear from God, and yet we make little effort to listen. We want our answers just a click away. Even our church services typically have very little space for silence. (I admit that when I’m preparing our sermon audio for the podcast, I typically shorten any pauses that are more than five seconds.) I was reading recently about the regulative principle of worship—that churches should not add anything to worship services that is not specifically permitted in Scripture (https://www.gotquestions.org/regulative-normative-worship.html). I think to some extent it is true that “simpler is better.” I won’t say that it’s necessarily bad for churches to project lyrics and Scriptures, or to use praise bands or accompaniment tracks, but it does concern me when some worship services are indistinguishable from concerts and other performances. Silence is one way of pointing people back to the reason for worship. When all the external noises are stilled, we have fewer distractions from the voice of the Holy Spirit who was given to “teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

In the noise of this world, it can be hard to find silence, and I believe the church is uniquely suited to providing that break from routine. Many families experience no silent moments unless the kids are asleep; however, kids need silence too. I believe the admonition in James to be “quick to hear, slow to speak” ought to be applied to all types of situations, not just potentially controversial conversations.

I remember an exercise during training to be a Resident Assistant in college. We were to go into a dorm room and respond to whatever scenario was presented. It happened that the room I got was a person who was upset about a difficult relationship. I didn’t really know how to respond, so I just listened to her talk. Afterward, the students observing (as well as the actress) said that even though they wanted to jump in and start talking, my silence was probably the best response in that case. How often do we really listen instead of jumping in with answers or reassurances? Job’s friends were at their best before they opened their mouths, and Job too had to learn to put his hand over his mouth.

My challenge for this week (and you’re welcome to join me) is to stop the noise. Take time away from the TV and internet to be still. Find a time and place to stop and listen for the “low whisper” of God’s presence (1 Kings 19:12). And then extend that listening to those around who just need to be heard.

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Gather Expectantly

Nehemiah chapters 8 and 9 have often left me amazed. The people of Israel gathered in the square to listen to the reading of God’s Word all morning, and it wasn’t even the more comforting parts of the Bible they heard, but the Law—those chapters that we’re probably tempted to skip when we read through the Bible. They didn’t respond with boredom but with sorrow because of their sin. The next day they held a training conference for the leaders to study the words of the Law, and for the rest of the week they continued listening to the readings. Just a couple weeks later they gathered again and “read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of a day [3 hours]; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God” (9:3 ESV).

I wonder how it would go over in most churches to hold week-long services for the sole purpose of reading chapter after chapter of Leviticus? Or a six-hour worship service? I was a little surprised that The Gospel Coalition Women’s Conference last week centered around teaching from Deuteronomy and had good attendance. We tend to have short attention spans when it comes to Scripture reading and teaching. If the sermon goes more than 30 minutes, many church members start checking their watches. Cultural influences certainly play a part. Churches of other cultures often have no such time constraints on their services. We can blame technology and consumerism if we like, but the real problem is hearts that are not attuned to seeking first the Kingdom of God. We don’t hear His Word for us because we don’t really care to listen.

I came across this quote from Jason Meyer in David Mathis’s book Habits of Grace: “The ministry of the word in Scripture is stewarding and heralding God’s word in such a way that people encounter God through his word.” How often do we attend church services with the expectation of encountering God? How often do we show up expecting little more than to sing a few songs and hear to someone talk for a while? How often do we prepare for worship prayerfully and not just run in at the last second?

I would challenge all of us to consider our degree of receptivity to the things of God and our level of engagement in corporate worship. Mathis wrote for Desiring God:

“It’s tragically sad to be apathetic and lazy. Corporate worship is too important not to care. This is the single most important hour in the Christian’s typical week — because here we experience, as in no other weekly habit, the coming together of hearing God’s voice (in his word read and preached), having his ear (in prayer and Godward song), and belonging to his body (in the many corporate aspects before, during, and following our gathering).

“It simply matters too much to our own souls, and to the souls of others, to be content with disengaging, whether our lethargy is emotional and stubborn, or simply the product of consistently not getting enough sleep on Saturday night.”

May we gather expectantly this weekend!

“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” (Psalm 95:6).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Photo © 2018 Dawn Rutan. 

Listen and Obey

The following is more or less what I shared with my church family today:

Lately in Sunday school and church we’ve been talking about how the apostles and the early church in the book of Acts were available and obedient to what God called them to do through the Spirit’s prompting. I wanted to share a couple small opportunities that came my way this week.

As you know, Lawrence Efird’s body has been failing for quite some time. I had visited him at the rehab center, but hadn’t gone to see him in the hospital. I kept finding excuses not to go—first the holidays, then the busyness of work, and so on. And the worse he got, the easier it was to find reasons not to go. It’s not that I didn’t want to see him and Shirley, but I didn’t want to see him in that condition, for that to be my last memory of him. If you were at Dulin’s Grove last Sunday you heard Matt pointedly urging anyone who’d been thinking about it to go visit Lawrence, and then he preached on God’s authority and how we can’t call Jesus “Lord” if we won’t do what He says.

So I told God, “I get the message, I’ll go see Lawrence and Shirley.” But after church I started thinking, “Well, I can go Monday since I don’t have to work and will have more time,” trying to put it off again. But as the day wore on I kept hearing, “No, you need to go today.” So I finally got in the car and drove up there. I was nervous wondering who else might be there that I may or may not know. I arrived just as the girls were leaving, so it was just Lawrence and Shirley and Amy there. Shirley and I chatted for an hour or so, shared some tears, and prayed together before I left. When I got the word that Lawrence passed Sunday night, I wasn’t surprised, because I knew that God had a reason for me to go up there and not put it off one more day. I was glad that I had listened to His promptings when I did.

Then Tuesday after Phyllis Hord’s funeral, I went over to Burger King to grab some lunch before returning to work. While I was waiting in line, I heard the cashier asking the man in front of me, “Have you heard anything? Is he okay?” And the man answered, “No, he passed away Sunday.” Now I knew that couldn’t be a coincidence, but if you know me, you know that I don’t generally talk to people I don’t know. In fact, I often don’t talk to people I do know. But I felt compelled to ask, “Are you talking about Lawrence Efird?” And he said yes. It turns out it was Paul, who had often sat with Lawrence and Shirley and Pat for lunch at Burger King on Sundays. As I was talking to him and telling him how to get to the church, the manager came out and asked about Lawrence. I was able to write down the details on the arrangements for him. And I was glad to have the chance to be in the right place at the right time.

Thinking later about the fact that these “strangers” knew Lawrence well enough to want information about his funeral, I knew that it wasn’t just because he was a frequent customer, but because Lawrence never met a stranger. He would talk to anyone, and I’m sure that the conversations often turned to his faith, because that was what was most important to him. He wasn’t one to shirk opportunities that came his way.

I’ll be honest, when we started the Sunday school series on Acts and when I heard Matt was going to be preaching on Acts, I was less than enthusiastic. In my mind, Acts is a nice narrative of how God worked through the Apostles, but it doesn’t have a lot of theological meat to chew on, and I’m not sure how to apply it to “real” life. So I had reluctantly prayed that God would help me figure out what to do with this study. It turns out that God answers even reluctant prayers! He provides opportunities to apply His Word if we’ll just pay attention. It may be small things, but God still speaks and we have to choose whether to listen and obey. So my prayer for all of us is that we’ll learn to listen to the Spirit’s promptings and to obey Him all the time, not just when it is convenient or comfortable.

As I was getting ready to post this, I thought of the song “The Voice of Truth” and its reminder that we can step out in faith and not be afraid of whatever God calls us to do.

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Listen

Lord, forgive me
for shutting You out
and silencing Your voice.
Distraction is far too easy.

I avoid silence

when there are things
I need to understand,
but I don’t take the time.
There are things

You’re trying to tell me,
but I’m too busy to hear.
There are truths
I need to see,
if I’ll just stop what I’m doing.

I want to hear

Your still, small voice,
yet I don’t give You
much chance to speak.

Help me to listen

better and more often
to hear Your words
of love and compassion,
instruction and rebuke.
Let me honestly say
“Speak, Lord,
for Your servant is listening.”