ConneXus Blog

Text: Isaiah 45:20-22

20 "Gather together and come;
assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
who pray to gods that cannot save.

21 Declare what is to be, present it—
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the LORD ?
And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.

22 "Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other."

God knows the authority and power of His word and yet, sometimes, in my humanness I find myself looking up asking, "God, how did you know I needed that/this, right at this very point, and this exact time."  Amazing how he understands and cares so presently and specifically. 

He is God alone; there is none but Him.  Never has been and never will be - none but Jesus.  The world may have my flesh but God has full control of my Spirit.  The world requires me to have a SS#, an address or fingerprint; an idea or label.  God demands that I find peace, that I be consumed with love and that my mind be set on specific characters and thoughts that are praiseworthy and honorable.  The world demands that I live at a certain income level, or that I front as though I do.  It demands that I act a certain way, exude a certain personality; a carbon copy existance.  God demands that I be noble, and righteous, and true, and hopeful; that I think about others and that I be myself, because that's who he created me to be … myself.  The world demands a credit score.  God demands we acknowledge He's already settled the ultimate score and that our credit is already stored up for us in heaven; we are perfectly redeemed by Him. 

He is our peace, our confidence, our provider. 

He has redeemed us and set us free. 

We need to remember that this is our God!

By L.B. Cowman, excerpt from 'Streams In The Desert'

"Here is God's loving challenge to you and to me today. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, worthiest desire and longing of our hearts, something which perhaps was our desire for ourselves OR for someone dear to us, yet which has been so long unfulfilled that we have looked upon it as only a lost desire, that which might have been but now cannot be, and so have given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this life.

That thing, if it is in line with what we know to be His expressed will (as a son to Abraham and Sarah was), God intends to DO for us, even if we know that it is of such utter impossibility that we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone's supposing it could ever come to pass. That thing, God intends to do for you, if you will let Him.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Gen. 18:14) Not when we believe in Him enough to go forward and do His will, and let Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.

The only thing too hard for God is deliberate, continued disbelief in His love and power, and our final rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is too hard for God to do for those who trust Him."

By Julia Fowler, Worship Arts Pastor

Text: 1 Samuel 15:22 (The Message)

"Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices--empty rituals just for show?  He wants you to listen to him!  Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production."

Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. "I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day," he recalled in his book Stress Fractures. "Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable."

"I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, 'Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin' and I'll tell you really fast.'

"Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, 'Honey, you can tell me -- and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly." "I'll never forget her answer: 'Then listen slowly.'"

There's a plaque in my office that my husband, Ralph, bought me several years ago.  It reads, "Lord grant me patience, but please hurry."  We've all heard the scriptures that remind us that God's timing is not our timing, but have you ever considered these scriptures to be modeling not just the duration of time itself (how long it takes to wait for something, or work through something) but how in fact you live in each precious moment as you work forward in the time you are given? 

In the opening example, Swindoll is asked by his daughter to listen slowly.  For me this suggests a strong intent on the part of the listener to be present and purposeful in the action of listening.  It means the listener must willfully engage their senses and invest themselves wholely in the words and body language of the person to whom they are being spoken. 

If we take this definition now and go back to Samuel it really does bring new meaning to the idea that God wants us to listen to Him.  Samuel had it right … God wants us to spend time fully invested in deliberately directing our attention to the words and messages He is speaking to us--through His word, the world, the Holy Spirit and other Christians. 

I encourage you this week to try your ear at listening slowly to your friends, your family, and your heavenly father.