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Abiding and the Voice of God

And now, little children, abide in Him (I Jn 2:28).  Abiding in Jesus is life itself.  It is the greatest joy, the strongest peace, the deepest desire you can have.  When you abide with Jesus, He satisfies your soul. It is good to hear God’s voice on an issue, but it is better to abide with Jesus.  God speaks more to those who abide with Him.  When we make hearing God our greatest focus, we limit our ability to hear because we go only halfway.  God wants us not merely to hear from Him but to abide with Him. Abiding…

God’s Voice and Your Heart

I was recently helping a refugee student with high school algebra and found quickly that his problems with algebra were not with algebra.  He did not know basic math.  He could not add or subtract fractions or negative numbers.  He did not know what decimals represented.  He struggled with the basic multiplication table and did not know how to do division.  But somehow, after he came to America, the school placed him in Algebra, and he had homework asking him to graph parabolic functions.  I couldn’t help him much with the homework because he couldn’t graph even a single point…

The Voice of God and the Word of God

Lord, teach me your Word, that I may know your heart. If someone hands me the phone, and I hear my wife’s voice on the other end, no one has to tell me who I am talking to.  I don’t see her, but I know her voice.  God wants His voice to be something we know.  So how do you learn His voice? I learned my wife’s voice by listening to her and spending much time with her.  We learn God’s voice by listening to Him and spending much time with Him.  Of course, God’s voice is not auditory, so…

God Speaks

And Samuel said [to the Lord], “Speak, for your servant hears.”  (I Sam 3:10) I want to hear from you, Lord.  I don’t want a life in which you are far off.  I want your presence, your voice, your direction, your will for my life.  God still speaks. Some people want to deny the voice of God today, but He speaks nonetheless.  He has spoken to me concerning my career, education, wife, children, faith, parents, and friends.  He has given me direction concerning my entertainment and health, concerning how to spend my time and His money.  He has spoken to…

Fishing and Writing

At the end of the book of John, Jesus’ disciples are back in Galilee, and Simon Peter decides to go fishing.  A cohort of others joins him, including John, the son of Zebedee.  While they are still on the water, after catching nothing all night, Jesus shows up on the shore and calls to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat.  They do so and wind up catching so many fish that they can’t pull the net into the boat. After everyone gets to the shore, Jesus has a fire going with fish and bread…