Tom Holmes 16 04 30

For the last few weeks, we have been considering our personal relationship with God.  We have talked about entering a relationship with God, and hearing God’s side of the conversation.  But hearing that voice doesn’t always mean it is God who is speaking.  God has given us several tools we can use to discern or judge as to whether that voice is God’s or not.  Two weeks ago we looked at we are called to be church and how we can assist one another.  Last week, I spoke to you about The Owner’s Manual and how the scriptures didn’t just happen.  It took time and an agreed upon set of criteria or a standard to decide which of the many pieces of literature belonged in a special class of writings we have come to know as Scripture.  I also suggested that to best understand what the words are saying, we also need to have some idea of what the main messages of Bible are as well.  I guess, I left you a little confused so, we will spend a few moments trying to get a better handle on the difference between the “words and the message.”

Prayer: God who seeks us out, open us to what you would have us learn and then how we should act.

So, going back to last week, perhaps there were two items you may have found confusing.  The first one is a small point, that of the term, “soiling the hands.”

Christians required that any document to be considered for status as scripture need to be “God breathed” or inspired.  That is when reading them they somehow had to draw the reader closer to God.  They had to be special.  Reading them had to have the ability to be used to cause a change in people.

The Jewish requirement was that any scroll considered as “scripture” as opposed to just good reading material had to leave reader with “soiled hands.”  This was a term used in reference to be “ceremonially unclean” which, in turn meant, they were not fit to enter the temple to worship until they had “washed’ their hands, like they would before meals, etc.  What this term actually meant at the time in relation to the writings is lost but I suggested what I thought was a very reasonable possibility: reading the sacred writings people often came away with a sense of being unclean before God.  Isaiah 6:1-6 recounts Isaiah’s call and Isaiah finding himself at the very throne of God, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.”  Isaiah goes on to describe many things but perhaps the most profound thing was his own reaction, not to the various heavenly beings but to the holiness of God, “5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone!  Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”  In Isaiah’s eyes, he was anything but clean in comparison the God.

The second and probably far more important issue where confusion remains is about looking past the words to find the message.  Let me first say that the words are very important and that the goal of this exercise is not to “discover” some hidden meaning.  Rather, we are simply looking for the overriding themes of scripture.  Our brains can sometimes use the text to open our eyes and sometimes to close them.  As we come to understand the main messages of the Bible, we can better understand some very difficult texts.

Genesis 1:1, 2 reads, “1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The messages of these verses are that God is (The existence of God is never debated in scripture.) and that God was concerned for and involved in creation, even before any formation takes place.

As we carry on in this chapter, we also discover that God is the creator of all that is, that God is a God of order, that God creates order out of chaos, that since all things have their origin in God, all things are sacred especially life.  We also discover that of all life, humanity has the most intimate relationship with God.  God spoke all things into existence except of humanity.  In creating humanity, God paused and considered.  God intended to create humans very much like God’s self.  In the creative act, God formed the human with God’s own hands and then God breathed or “kissed” life into the human.  It was only then that the human became a living being.

When we continue into chapter 2:18 where God says, And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”  The text has been used to says that God took the first female out of the first man, thus the female is inferior to the male.  But since the first human somehow included both genders, what the message here really says is that God was always mindful of and in pursuit of what is best for humanity (as a whole, male and female.)

Of course, just because we see what might be a theme or a message behind the text doesn’t make it so.  They need to be repeated to be taken seriously.  John 3:18, along with many other passages, repeat this same concern of God for humanity.  Now, if we remember this message when we read the passages where the Children of Israel enter the Promised Land and are ordered by God to wipe out the indigenous peoples we are less likely to understand God as a cruel war mongering megalomaniac and more so as a loving God who had to make a hard choice.  Let’s say, for just a moment, we discover a tumour somewhere on our body. After going to see a doctor and a biopsy is done, doctor tells us we need to have it removed because that lump is malignant.  Although none of us like the idea of having surgery, we know that if we do not have that tumour removed, eventually it will consume our bodies and we will die.  The inhabitants of that land were a cancer that either needed to be eradicated or allowed to continue on and destroy the nation God had called into being to be God’s Immanuel, the face of God on earth.  We should also keep in mind that even though the details are not recorded, God gave those peoples over 400 years to change their ways.  See: Genesis 15:16, Lev. 18:24–27; Deut. 9:4–5; Amos 2:9

And now for this week’s consideration.  “Following in the Footsteps” refers to the fact that Christianity is religion that has a history.

Some would suggest that the Christian faith began on the Day of Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection.  Others conclude that its origins date back to Jesus public ministry.  Personally, I believe Christianity begins in Genesis 3 as God is pronouncing God’s judgement on the serpent “…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”  What follows through the entire Old Testament is preparatory to Jesus’ coming and is made real in the Gospels.  But it doesn’t end there.  It is a work in progress in the rest of the New Testament and in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, the Church Fathers and in the lives of all that came to name the name of Christ.  Like the story of creation, the early church was very chaotic but instead of taking 6 days to bring order, because was using people as God’s instruments, it has taken more than 2000 years and we are still not there yet.

Last week we talked about “canon” – a set of criteria used to define what belonged as scripture.  I also said to you that once a list of items, or in this case, a set of writings were collected that met those rules for belonging, those writings in themselves became a “canon.”  In this case, the scriptures became a set of rules for faith and living out that faith.

Not only did Church Councils have to decide what was best to describe as Scripture, but what those Scriptures meant.  Often, this was the result of people attaching very different meanings to the words of Scripture.

People have died fighting for statements of theology that most of us could care less about today.  People have laid down their lives living out what they have understood as God’s mission in their time and place.

Every cause of dissention that exists today has existed since the very early days of the church but we don’t know that or do we know just how destructive some of the personal beliefs we hold are because, in a very real sense, we live as though our faith is a product of our time.  It isn’t.  We stand in a long line of people, of groups, of missions, of institutions, of denominations that have met many of the same struggles we face today.  Some have entered the fray with the sword and others with grace.  The history of the church is such that I can fairly safely say that when she has thought herself to be all important, she was brought to her knees.  When she remember that God and God’s love extended to humanity was all important, she flourished.

Initially, the church was organic in nature with very little structure.  Followers of Christ relied on the Voice of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and working together to accomplish God’s purposes.  As time passed and as various challenges were met, the church became increasingly more institutional.  With increasing institutionalization came greater opportunities for personal influence and power, something many of us find very difficult to resist.  It didn’t take long before the “Church” existed for itself.  However, each time this happened, something else began to stir.  God would remind a person or a small group of people of who they were in Christ and as they began living out that calling, great reforms ensued and the church was steered back on course.

To sum it all up, yes times have changed but Christ has not and neither has the human condition.  Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has been present with the church urging her to remember what was right and what was wrong; urging her to remain clean while extending the love of God to those who are anything but; urging her to be and act like the Bride of Christ not bridezilla.

As we walk the path of faith, we will encounter all kinds of things that we simply do not know how to handle.  Not all, but certainly many of the answers to the past.

From time to time, a supposedly “new teaching” will start making its way like wild fire through the church.  Chances are, if you look in the past you will find this “new teaching” has surfaced many times before and each time it was discounted because it did not line up with the Scriptures.  It did not meet the requirements of the canon. For example the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe Jesus to be God but rather an angel.  Was this understanding something brand new in the mid 1800’s?  No, that line of thought surfaced very early in the life of the church and was a contentious issue for a couple of hundred years.

Looking back at history also gives us insight into how to handle current problems.  One of the recurring themes of church history is that when the church thought itself to be powerful it was actually very weak and that revival happened around going back to the basics.  Allowing the love of God towards humanity to be lived out requires far more rules.  That power is found in humility and heartfelt prayer.  The Gospel is far more effect when it is freely shared than when it is held hostage by the so-called elite.

God has given us tools to help us to determine if the voice we are hearing is that of God’s Voice or another.  God has given us a family, the church.  God has given us a written record, the scriptures.  God has given us a history.  None of these should be our sole source of advice.  They are intended to work together along with our ability to use the not so common sense that God has given us that we will consider next week.  None should be isolated, Why?  Because it is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to lead us in to all truth and the Holy Spirit works in and through our church families, in and through the words and messages of scripture, in and through the lessons learned and not learned from the past and yes, in and through our ability to reason.  To put it another way, the Scriptures are our canon, our rule, our standard for faith and life.  Our family is intended to helps us to understand both the words and messages of those sacred writings, and our history demonstrates for us what goes right when we hear God accurately and do as God asks and what goes wrong when we pay heed to our own selfishness, the selfishness of others or our let our fears interpret faith.

May God grant us the wisdom to use the tools God has given us to better hear and discern God’s voice and then to put Gods plan into action.  Amen.

Prayer:  Open our hearts and minds, our ears and eyes and most importantly our wills so that we may learn more of You.  Amen.

I have entitled this topic in our series From Head to Heart, The Owner’s Manual.  By “The Owner’s Manual” I am referring to the Bible.  Of course, the Bible is not a “manual” in the way we usually understand it today.

When I worked at a car dealership, we had access to a host of manuals.  In the parts department, we had a series of binders that contained pictures of various sections of cars and trucks that showed us how each piece was put together.  Each of the various parts of that piece was labelled so that we could find its proper name.  This took a lot of guess work out of ordering replacement parts.  In the service department, they had a series of manuals that showed them how the pieces fit together and also gave detailed instructions about dismantling and re-assembling the various parts of vehicles.

In the United Church, we have a document called The Manual which is a detailed breakdown of how every level of church government should work.

Normally we think of a “manual” as a detailed set of “how to” instructions written in a step by step fashion.  The Bible is not written that way at all.  The Bible is a collection of histories, stories, poems and speeches all designed to inform us something of God, of humanity or of the relationship between God and humanity or amongst humanity.  Although some of these writings contain sections that are systematic treatments of certain topics (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans and Corinthians to name a few), as a whole, the material is not presented in a systematic treatment of topics.  So, if you are looking for information dealing with a specific issue, unless you already know where that information can be found, you will not likely find it.  And, even then, if you do not have an understanding of the particular context of that information or the attitudes behind that instruction, there is a reasonable chance how you interpret it will not be completely accurate.

When we considered Entering a Relationship with God, I said that we can gather with the church for many years and never come to understand that we can have a personal relationship with God; that is very possible to hear all the right words but never hear the message behind the words.  This is also true of the words and message of the Bible.

I have spoken to you about the Bible several times in the last ten years.  I have addressed the Bible from different perspectives.  Today, we will consider it from a very different one.  Today we will consider “canon.”

Cannon, spelled “c-a-n-n-o-n” is a tubey thing that shoots stuff, but what does the word canon spelled “c-a-n-o-n” mean?  Primarily it is “a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged” and by extension “any list or collection of items meeting that standard.”  The various writings that make up our Bible are considered “canon.”

The collection forming the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament met the following conditions:

1. They had to be written in Hebrew, with a few exceptions being made for Aramaic sections of Daniel, the writings of Ezra and Jeremiah 10:11 (Larue, Gerald A. (1968). Old Testament Life and Literature. Allyn and Bacon. pp. Ch. 31.) The rationale being that Hebrew was the divine language whereas, Aramaic the common.
2. The material had to be widely accepted within the Jewish community. For example, the scroll of Esther was commonly used at the Feast Purim making it possible for it to be included in the canon.   However because the scroll of Judith had no such widespread support, was not acceptable.

This condition also spoke to the notion of the writing being special, something that had the power to lead people closer to God.

3. Any scroll being considered, had to, in one fashion or another speak of one of the great themes of the Hebrew faith such as the Covenant (the contract between God and the people) or Election (God choosing them as God’s people.)
4. And the original had to be penned during or before the time of Ezra (the return of the exiles from Babylon.)

Christians accepted the books of the Hebrew Bible as scripture.  As for the books contained in the New Testament or Christian Scriptures, the main criteria was that of being “God breathed” or inspired.  In early Christian circles the notion of being “God breathed” meant that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings may be designated in some sense the word of God.  This is something like the Jewish notion that since Hebrew is a divine the language the Hebrew Scriptures are the very Word of God and thus have the power to lead people closer to God.  In addition, these writings had to:

1. Be the writings of the early apostles which included Paul and Jude.
2. Had to be written or completed in their final form sometime before 150 C.E.
3. Be widely accepted as worthy of being read out loud in a gathering the church.

As you can see, these sets of criteria are very similar – both assume the writings are the “word of God”, both assume that the special nature of these books was well recognised by the communities of faith and not just the clergy, and both assumed that there was an expiration date on what could be considered as “canon” thus unofficially stating an end date for what is commonly referred to as “revelation.”

But I think we also need to consider what happens to people when they take seriously that the Books contained in the Bible are themselves a “canon,” that together they set a standard for our relationship to God, one another and ourselves.  It is true that there have been widespread disagreements about how we understand the words of what we call scripture and terrible abuses perpetrated in the name of scripture.  However, for the most part, those who have taken more seriously the message of the Bible rather than the just the words of the Bible, have seen hearts and lives transformed and great, seemingly impossible things have been accomplished.

The second school that God has established for us to judge whether the voice we are hearing is that of God or the voice of another else, is the Bible.  But it is hard to use this tool if we are not familiar with it and it is hard to be familiar with it, if we have never read and are not continuing to read it.  As well, it is difficult to know the message of the Bible if we only consider the words of the text.  The Bible can be sourced as the basis for almost anything.  The words of the scriptures must be understood in light of the great themes of the Bible which we can only really come to see by setting aside all our preconceived notions and allowing the Holy Spirit to help us get past the words that are used.

What follows is a brief list of some of those themes.

1. God always chooses what is best for humanity. Sometimes, this means that the “needs of the many outweigh the needs on the one” to quote Mr. Spock from Star Trek.
2. God will never force us to accept God as God
3. God choses to work in, through and on behalf of those who are willing to accept God’s attention far more so than those who are not.
4. Being one of God’s chosen does not exclude us from evil. In fact, it could also be said that while those in a personal relationship with God are subject to greater blessings and privileges, we also subject to greater suffering and responsibility than those who have not accepted God as God.  Why?  Re-read item #1.
5. Being one of God’s chosen does mean that in the end, everything will be ok and in the meantime God supplies all our needs.

The best way to approach reading the Bible is systematically.  Set aside time each day and read a predetermined mount.  For example if you read about 6 chapters a day, you will complete the entire Bible in less than a year.  Actually, assuming there are more or less 1190 verses in the Bible depending on the version, if you were to read 6 chapters each day, Monday through Friday (or any other 5 days,) it will take about 334 days or 48 weeks to read the entire Bible.  This gives you 28 days of “mulligans” to get caught up when life doesn’t go according to plan.  (You can also complete this challenge in 30 days if you read 40 chapters a day.)  There are different approaches people take but if this is the first time attempting to read the entire Bible I would suggest the easiest and by far the most difficult approach.  Begin at page 1 and read it to the end.  This is the best way to see how the message unfolds, grows and is shaped.  Of course, this also means spending several days in a row reading lists and the like.  But know this, those lists are very important.

A concern of some may be that they have tried reading the Bible in the past and it just made no sense.  To that, may I suggest two things.  Before you begin to read each day, pray and ask God to show you God’s heat.  When you read, don’t worry so much about understanding it with you head, that will come in time.  Rather, let your heart be the focus of understanding.  Sometimes if instead of asking, “What is going on?” (facts we interpret with our brain) we need to ask “Why is this going on?” (motivations we sense in our heart.)

Next time, we will consider From Head to Heart: Following in the Footsteps, the third on our list of ways through which we can use as an aid to discerning whether the voice we ae hearing is that of God’s or another.

Prayer:  Open our hearts and minds, our ears and eyes and most importantly our wills so that we may learn more of You.  Amen.

Two weeks ago, we began taking a look at a series of topics for our consideration which I entitled, “From Head to Heart.”  We started with “Entering a Relationship with God.”

At that time I said to you that we cannot initiate a relationship with God, we can only respond to God’s advances.  I also suggested that entering a relationship with God is, on many levels, not that much different than entering a relationship with another human being.  All that is required is picking up on the conversation that God has already started with us through the Holy Spirit.  However, this conversation cannot be a “now I lay me down to sleep” monologue although, it may certainly start there.  It has to move to a meaningful conversation one that is honest and self-revealing and one that pays attention to God’s side of the conversation.  There is an expectation on God’s part that at some point in time, we will repent: that is, change our ways.

Last week we looked at some ways in which God speaks to us.  Often God speaks to us through words and thoughts that for the most part come from inside of us.  Something that I did not talk very much about if at all, is that God also uses a mechanism that is commonly referred to as a “burden” that is, we find ourselves with a desire to do something we don’t know now to do, are afraid to do or, are unwilling to do.  This may be something small or, it could be something quite large.  This burden will stay with us until we either do it or, the time for doing it has passed.  I suspect the reason why it is called a burden is because until we act on it, it weighs heavy on us.

Today we are going to begin looking at how we discern, how we go through the process of deciding if what we are hearing is God’s message to us or just our own imagination run wild.

Prayer: God who knows our heart and empowers us to see what cannot be seen, allow us the experience of meeting Jesus and through him, establishing and growing in relationship with God.  Amen.

In 2006 The United Church of Canada adopted a fourth statement of faith.  This one, called “A Song of Faith,” is far more poetic than any of its predecessors.  The opening stanza reads this way,

God is Holy Mystery,
beyond complete knowledge,
above perfect description.

Yet,
in love,
the one eternal God seeks relationship.

So God creates the universe
and with it the possibility of being and relating.

God tends the universe,
mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.

God enlivens the universe,
guiding all things toward harmony with their Source.

Grateful for God’s loving action,
We cannot keep from singing.

But Houston, we have a problem.  Actually, we have several problems that result in us being overwhelmed with messages that are harmful in hearing God’s side of the conversation and are destructive to our relationship with God.

Modern English is not always a precise language that is often used sloppily and is becoming increasingly more so with the advent of texting.  For example, English does not make a distinction between “you” singular and “you” plural.  “You” can mean one person or a whole group of people.  So, when we read “you are the temple of the Holy Spirit,” it is easy for us to conclude that this is referring to individuals, which is true but in this case only by extension.  Primarily, the meaning of this passage is that the Church, the Body of Christ, is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, in the New Testament, it is better to assume, unless the context demands otherwise, that whenever the word “you” is used, the passage is directed towards the group not an individual.

The second problem is what the Bible refers to as “the world”.  The “world” can refer to the earth and all that is contained therein.  The “world” can refer to all the people in the world, as in John 3: 16, “for God so loved the world.”  But the term “world” also has a much more sinister meaning.  It refers to the values, systems, assumptions and ideas used to promote the idea that God is not or, that God does not matter.

Do you remember the jingle from McDonald’s a few years back, “you deserve a break today?”  And what about the commercials on TV that tell us that if we want to have significant relationships we need to use the right toothpaste, deodorant, drink the right kind of alcohol, use the right websites and the list goes on, and on, and on.  We are constantly being sold a bill of unhealthy goods based on the notion that we are the most important individuals in the world.  We are surrounded by a constant bombardment of ideas, of pictures, of movies and videos, of songs that promote the growth of our selfishness and short-sightedness.

The third problem that I’ll mention today has to do with our shrinking world due to the advancements in travel and in the technology of communication.

If we want the answer to a question all we have to do is go on to our computer and type the question into Google or Bing or some other search engine and before you can count to one you’ll be given a selection of thousands upon thousands of potential answers.  But where do these answers come from?  Are they the results of years of study and investigation or are they a thought that dropped into someone’s head that really knows little to nothing of what they’re talking about but had a few minutes to express their thoughts online?  We see what is supposed to be news from all over the world but increasingly news is entertainment and entertainment demands our reaction. So, what passes is news is often sensationalized or basically propaganda promoting someone else self-interest.  Families used to live their lives within a small area.  Now families are strung around the world, straining family ties and encouraging a sense of isolation.

I could go on, but we need to stop here and take a look at God’s intention.

In the opening pages of Genesis where it talks about God creating the world, on days one through five God concludes God’s work with a comment that it was good.  But, during the sixth day when God created the first human, God concluded that it was “not good for man to be alone.”  Of course, “man” is not referring to gender (male or female) but rather a species.  God’s solution was to put that first man asleep and to divide that very first human into two genders so that they would not be absolutely unique, alone or self-sufficient.  As male and female, “man” now needed one another both for survival and for propagation.  In the end, because it was not deemed “good” in God’s eyes for man to be alone, God gave humanity family.

When humanity had become so hardened to God’s voice that God decided it was time to start again, God made provision for Noah and his family.  When humanity had once again become so hardened that God decided once again to start over, God chose Abram and by extension his family to learn the ways of God.  That family became a nation and that nation became the face of God on earth, or at least it was supposed to be.

If God does not think it best for us to live in isolation from others of our kind, what makes us think we can?

When God by the Holy Spirit, pats us on the shoulder and says “hi,” waiting for our response, God has already prepared a family into which we will be born so that we might be nurtured and protected.  We are to be surrounded by this family so that we can learn and grow and so that we might become as an individual, and as a family, all that we can be.

Since we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and by “we” I mean the church, from local congregation to National denomination, to the church universal, and since it is the Holy Spirit who opens our eyes, who teaches us the things of God and empowers us to do God’s work, one of the four main avenues of helping us to discern whether or not the voice we are hearing is God’s voice or another, is through the Council of the church, most often, our local congregation.

Over the course of more than forty years of being actively engaged in a conversation with God, I have heard countless people say that they do not need to go to church to be a Christian.  May I point out some of the problems with that statement?

The first issue is that Christians do not “go to church.”  We are church!  We participate in a gathering of the church and we do so to learn, to grow, to share one another’s burdens and joys and to experiment with the gifts and talents that God has given us.  It is within the context of “church” that we are best able to carry out the mission of God in our time and in our place.

The second issue is that the church is made up of people, each with their own frailties.  Now, I already know the objections that people have to statements like that above.  “Some of the worst people I have ever met our church people.”  “Most church people are either liars or hypocrites or both.”  “Most church people are mean, or get involved in activities for the sole purpose of gaining power.”  Again, the list goes on.  I also want you to know that I have never been so betrayed or hurt as deeply as I have by those who are part of the church.  And many of those hurts have come from people for which I had great respect.  It would have been easy, really easy, to walk away and never be involved in a body of believers again.  But, somewhere along the line, I picked up a few lessons.

One of the lessons I learned is that God uses all kinds of circumstances and all kinds of people to work in me the process of becoming more like Christ.  Not that I am perfect, far from it.  For a moment, consider God’s process of conforming us to the image of Christ similar to a sculptor standing in front of a block of granite.  The sculptor’s job is to knock away all of the stone that is not part of the image that lies deep in that piece of granite.  And so they start by examining very carefully the stone.  They are looking for the grain and flaws.  The sculptor needs to know in advance what effect his tools will have on the stone.  A sculptor may start with a saw but will quickly turn to a broad chisel and hammer, knocking off big chunks.  Once the big chunks are removed, the tools change.  Instead of a large chisel, a small one and instead of a large hammer, a small one and instead of smashing, the movement needs to be that of chipping.  But even that is insufficient.  The tools need to change again.  The hammer and the chisel are replaced with an abrasive; something that will grind down the little pieces remaining and make the finished surface smooth.

Out of this lesson comes another: those people whom I thought did me great harm actually worked for my good.  Regardless of their motives, regardless of how frail their humanity, God used them as instruments in the process of chipping away or sanding down those parts of me that needed to go.

In the passage that we read from the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about how those who are his followers knowing and responding to his voice.  It also says that because they are his followers they do not need to worry because they are secure in his hands.  I believe that with all my heart but we have also talked about the whole notion of repenting, of making course corrections.  Basically those course corrections can be categorized as doing God stuff God’s way rather than doing what we want, when we want, where we want, why we want.  Our priorities become consistent with God’s priorities.  So I’m not going to say that’s impossible to be a Christian and not participate in the various gatherings of the church, but I will say to you, there is so much more to our Christian walk, there is so much more to our faith, there is so much more to our joy when we acknowledge that God has our best intentions at heart, both collectively and individually, when we do “not neglect our meeting together.” (He. 10:25 NLT)

One of the ways that we learn to discern whether or not the voice we are hearing is God’s voice or another voice is to share our experience with others and asked them their advice and to listen as they share their experiences with us.  Some lessons can only come through experience.  Learning to discern God’s voice does not happen overnight.  It is a learning experience and one of the classrooms in the school that God has set up for us is that of the local congregation, the local church.

Next week we are going to consider a second mechanism available to us to help us to decide whether or not the voice that we are hearing is God’s voice or not – The Owner’s Manual.

Prayer: God who seeks us out, desiring relationship with us and healthy relationships for us, help us to set aside our own agendas and submit to yours.  Amen