He's still talking to us

In Genesis 1, the Bible talks about God speaking the universe into existence. God spoke and it happened (verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). Then God spoke to the humans (verses 28 and 29) and gave instruction. He continues to speak in chapter 2, particularly verses 16 and 18. Now, it seems that the humans listened at first, and as long as they did, all was well. It was when they listened to the serpent, and believed him instead of God, that things went south.

And so it has gone, ever since. As I've written before, God talked to people like Noah, Abraham, and the prophet Moses, as well as kings and prophets after them. He has never really left us without knowing His will. But to make the speaking perfect, the Father sent the Son to be with us and show us the Father's heart. We can read in Hebrews 1:1-2, "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son."

How did the Father speak to us through the Son? In the Incarcation (God made flesh), we see many ways, verbal and non-verbal. For instance, the Son was born as a baby, expressing solidarity with humans in our weakness and helplessness and poverty. He was baptized to identify with our need for cleansing and to make our baptism perfectly valid. As a human, Jesus had to learn the scriptures; and as God, he taught the will of the Father that stands under and behind all the written word. Jesus gave up his life as a perfect sacrifice for our sins, in order to clear the way for our adoption by the Father; and was resurrected to show the Father's desire for us to join him in eternal happiness and peace.

The infant in the manger speaks to us. The young man in the Temple speaks to us. So do the Teacher and the Lamb and the risen Son. He's still talking to us through scripture and the Spirit's voice. It's all the one and same God speaking -- not one mysterious short-tempered God in the Old Testament and a new, nice and sweet Jesus in the New. It's the same will of God, the same love of God for his children, and the same faithfulness of God to his promises, that have spoken to us from Creation to now -- revealed, finally and fully, in the incarnate Son.

The Christmas season, for Christians, is not a time of spending money we don't have, to buy stuff we feel obligated to buy, for people we don't like, so they can take it all and exchange it on Monday for stuff they'd rather have anyway. Christmas teaches us to recognize the voice of God in the Son of God made flesh for us and with us. It teaches us that, by entering his creation, God has united his creation -- including all of us -- with himself forever. And that, we can celebrate with great joy!

Hearing from God, Part 3

God has been talking to humans since He walked and talked with our first parents in the garden of Eden. We've responded by turning away from Him, refusing to listen, and talking back, like a bunch of self-willed kids. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful, had trouble remembering what God had said and trusting Him to work it out -- like in the ill-planned birth of Ishmael as his heir, instead of waiting for the promised son Isaac.

The nation of Israel continued to have trouble hearing God's voice, even though He spoke to them through the judges and prophets of the period before the kings, and by prophets and priests during the time of the kings of Israel and Judah. Time and again He sent someone to call a king or the nation back to covenant-faithfulness. They spoke in words that were clear, or sometimes not clear (especially to us in the modern Western world who don't understand Eastern thinking). Sometimes the people listened and turned back to God; and sometimes they didn't even listen. Sometimes they killed the prophets God sent.

At the right time, God sent His Son into the world (Galatians 4:4) to save us, as Gabriel explained to Joseph: "And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). Finally, we had someone we could hear. Not a prophet who spoke for God, or a priest who offered sacrifices, or a judge who interpreted the law, not a king to make and enforce law, but the true Son of God, who came to be God-With-Us, Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). But in His own way, He was also prophet, priest, king and judge. And when He spoke, Jesus said the words of the Father Himself: " I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say" (John 12:49-50).

As the Son of the Father, Jesus spoke the words of the Father; not as some representative but as the Son who knew the Father personally. Finally, we had a chance to hear the words of God, in a way we could understand! As before, some people heard, and some rejected Him, to the point of killing Him. But now, finally, God was speaking for Himself, not through some intermediary, and Jesus came as God to show the heart of God to all humanity -- if we will hear.

Hebrews 12, verses 18-29, compare the imagery of Sinai as a contrast to Jesus' presence and teaching. And it says "Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking." That tells us once more that, as God, Jesus was and is speaking to us the words of God.

God speaks. Do we hear? That is the question of the ages. In Jesus, we are given the words of God to us all. In Jesus, we hear the Father's heart, calling us to hear and follow just as the prophets of old did. Jesus continues, but more importantly brings personally to us, the message of salvation. Do we hear? Do we believe? Do we accept?

I think it's a lot more comforting and peaceful, from the human point of view, to listen to the voice of Jesus in the pages of the Bible than it will be to hear His voice thunder from the heavens at His second appearance. One way or the other, though, we will all hear Him. I pray you will hear Him, clearly, today.

Hearing God, Part 2

Last time we looked at humanity's on-again, off-again way of hearing from God, starting with Adam and Eve and going through Abraham. The times when people actively tried to listen, things went a lot better with them, and vice versa. Now we come to Moses, in the book of Exodus.

God had been keeping track of the descendents of Abraham and their problems for the last 400 years. In Exodus 2, he arranges for a new leader to be born and trained to accomplish the next step in the plan. Moses is a sheepherder, and God starts talking to him out of a burning bush. Moses has enough sense to listen; although his version of listening includes a lot of arguing and complaining (see 3:11, 4:1, 10, 13). Moses continues to listen to God and to complain to Him for another 40 years. But God seems to enjoy the give-and-take; He compares His conversations with Moses to that of friends in Ex. 33:11.

God brings the Israelites out of Egypt, where they saw His miracles in the plagues against the Egyptian gods and His parting the Red Sea for them. They still hadn't heard His voice, though, as Moses had. So He calls them to Mount Sinai and there He speaks. But they can't listen; in a kind of irony, after Moses was afraid they wouldn't listen to him at all (4:1), they want to hear him instead of God: "don't let God speak to us, or we will die!" (20:19).

Moses was like the later prophets: he told the people, over and over, to hear God and not turn away, even though he knew they were going to (Deut. 4:1-14, 31:27, etc). Moses had seen from his own life and from watching others that we aren't very good at listening, but that God is talking and we should pay attention.

Now, here's a point: God had continued to find various ones who would listen, and He kept up the dialog. Why? Because He wants relationship with us. He wants the dialog, even when we get argumentative and difficult. And He sent His Son to talk to us, tell us more about Him and to call us back to that dialog and to walking together. We'll see some more of that next time. In the meantime, keep your ears open. He will definitely have something to say.

Hearing God, part 1

Humans started out hearing God's voice, kind of like a baby hears its parents' voices, just as a part of living. Adam and Eve seem to have listened to God (Gen. 1:28-30) as he told them why they were in the garden and what they should do about it, and to stay away from that one pesky tree of 'knowledge of good and evil' (chapter 2). But in chapter 3, after they'd already taken the one thing they weren't supposed to take, the tone of the conversation is strained -- it reminds me of some discussions I've had with my children. "What did you do?" "I didn't do it, it was her fault!" and evasion instead of honesty. Adam even tried to blame the whole thing on God ("“It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”). I can imagine God sighing at this point, and shaking his head.

From then on, things get tense. God tries to discuss things with Cain, who isn't in much of a listening mood (chapter 4) and from that time, there don't seem to be many who are in a conversation with the Creator. God speaks with Noah (Genesis 6) and Noah does everything God tells him to (verse 22). But Noah is the only one who seems to pay attention at that point. Not even his three sons and their wives, who get saved from the flood also, seem to have any ongoing contact with the Lord.

After the great flood, everything continues much as it had before. The gift of speech, which includes the need to hear, is used by the humans to plan and build a tower. They are listening to each other, but nobody is listening to God. So he confuses their speech (11:7-8) and now they can't hear each other!

Along comes a fellow named Abram. This man seems serious about hearing God; when the Lord tells him to pick up and move to a different land, he does (12:1-4). And throughout the rest of his life, through all sorts of adventures, God talks to this man and this man listens. Sometimes the conversations are more difficult, like in chapter 15 where Abram complains that God's promises aren't coming true because he doesn't have a son. But Abram/Abraham learns to trust God and even more, to be honest with him -- as Adam and Eve didn't do. And he keeps hearing when God speaks.

There's a lot more to the story, and I want to go into that the next few weeks. But every time we read in the Bible about God, it seems like he is trying to reach out to us, to help us, to teach us. Will people learn to hear him? Will we learn to trust him? That's the continuing question -- not only for humanity as a whole, but for each one of us.

What are you doing to hear from God today? He speaks through his word, the Bible, and to our minds and emotions as we pray, and through circumstances and other people. I need to hear from him about all kinds of things and I bet you do too. How about spending some time talking with him, and asking him to talk to you? And then actively listening? It will change you. It changed me, and a lot of people I know.

He's Been Here Already

Christians are waiting for the return of Jesus to rule the nations. That's completely legitimate, because He said He was coming back. But "back" means He's already been here once. And both of those points are the message of the traditional four weeks of Advent -- that the Son of God visited us once, and that He's returning. ("Advent" means "arrival," as we see in the name "Seventh-Day Adventists" who emphasize the Second Coming.)

The first week of Advent wraps up the entire year of Christian teaching and celebration, by telling us of that blessed, joyful return of our Savior to the world. Typically, the message of that day in song and sermon and prayer gives us reasons to lift up our eyes in hope of His return, and to be encouraged as we continue to work with Him on the earth now.

But of course, Jesus couldn't return unless He'd been here once already. The next three weeks of Advent teach us some of the many lessons of the first coming. Those include the fact that humanity needed His sacrifice for sin. But Jesus didn't just come here to die -- He, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, perfectly joined God with humanity for the first time. Because He did that, He healed the breach that was opened up in Eden and continued on to that time. All of the angels were waiting for that new beginning, and they celebrated at His birth (Luke 2:8-14) just like they had at the creation (Job 38:7).

Hebrews 9:26-28 gives us both ends of the Advent season when it says this: "But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him."

Do you have goose bumps yet? I do, every time I think about the magnificent, all-inclusive scope of that passage. He's been here once; He dealt decisively with our separation from God; and He's coming back to finalize what He started a long, long time ago. I've got every reason that I can think of to celebrate. How about joining me?

God's Faithful Deliverance

I just noticed a parallel, brought out to me by a commentary, on two passages in the Book of Moses:
Gen. 8:1, 14 -- and God remembered Noah...and sent a wind...and the waters receded...and the ground was dry.
Ex. 2:24 -- and God remembered His covenant... 14:21 and sent a strong east wind and drove back the sea... 14:22 and the Israelites went through on dry ground.

In both stories, God "remembered" and "sent a wind" and the waters were pushed back and "dry ground" appeared for the people to walk on. Now, isn't that interesting...the same sequence (even though, in Exodus it's separated in time) of remembering -- taking note of and deciding it's time to act -- sending a wind, and the dry ground appearing for the people to walk on.

There are other places where God "remembers" or takes special note of something, and then takes action, sometimes an action that requires time and a sequence to complete; for instance, Gen. 30:22, where God 'remembered' Rachel, took note of her need and acted.

But in these two cases, the sequence includes a drying wind. Now, for Israel on the seashore, the strong wind was probably unpleasant -- the sand getting in their eyes, and perhaps in their food. Noah and the family may have had a bit of a rougher ride once that wind started. (I wonder if seasick elephants throw up?) But the wind came as an agent of God, and the good result came later. In both cases, He used the wind instead of just waving His hand or something.

Just a thought -- if a dry wind of distress or pain is blowing in your life right now, it could be in preparation for a greater miracle. If God has taken away something, perhaps it's so He can give you something else. That's how it's happened in my life, a dozen times that I can think of. As James 1:2-4 says, about trials:
"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."

May God give you the strength and patience, from His store of grace, to ride out the wind of pain or loss or worry, whatever you're going through, so His greater miracle can become evident in you. And may you walk free, on dry ground.

Veterans

November 11 is celebrated in the US as Veterans' Day, remembering all the men and women who have served and are serving in the armed forces in this country. Those who fell in battle, and those who are still serving, get honored once a year. So they should be. To keep us a free country, they risk their lives every day, enduring a lot of discomfort, often thousands of miles from home and loved ones. As much as I hate war, with its waste of human lives and its savagery, I still believe it's important to honor those who have served our nation. Whenever I have a chance, I stop and thank people in uniform for their service to the country. (And that includes emergency workers as well -- especially our police and firefighters.)

We can also honor those in the faith who went before us. Hebrews 11 has a list of them: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Jochebed (Moses's mother), Moses, Rahab the prostitute, and a bunch of others, named and unnamed. You could also include Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her husband Joseph. All the apostles and leaders of the early church, too. They all went through suffering, pain, separation from their families, ridicule and disdain from those around them, and in some cases, torture and execution for holding on to their convictions, to make a way for us. More recent figures come to mind as well. Martin Luther, for instance, and a lot of other leaders of the church.

What about those 'veterans' of the faith who provided a way for you to know your Savior? That may be your parents or grandparents, or a teacher, or neighbor, Scout leader, friend or even someone you didn't know before that time. And somebody who first told them about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And the one who told that person, all the way back to the first apostles.

Maybe we should stop to honor them as well. Without them in our lives, we might not be here.

Who can you thank God for?