MARCH 31 "DON'T SPEAK TO US"

"Don't speak to us, I thought we wanted God to speak to us?"  I thought the common complaint of God's people is that God never speaks?  In our story the people urged Moses, for God not to speak to them and it would be best if God just spoke to him (Moses) and he just relayed the message to them. Well, you can already see where this is heading. When God spoke to them it was fearful, but at least they could not pretend to not be sure if whether or not it was God that was truly speaking. So let's fast forward into the future because we can do that. Let's fast forward to the days of the prophets, specifically, Jeremiah, where he is prophesying and the people simply reject his prophecy (all the while feeling smug that they have not rejected God). Now the people, now you and I, can always say, "I reject your message, but never would I reject it if it was God, it's just that it's not God, so we reject you". It's the greatest form of hypocrisy, there is!  And...we all engage in it. I believe most Christians at one time have rejected the message, the Word, the Prophecy because it went against their own will. "God don't speak to us directly, it's too scary, speak to us through a man", I don't know how pure their motives were at the time, maybe some were sincere, but look where it has led us today. I can come to church every Sunday, have God speaking and leave rejecting the message. Why? Because it's just man speaking, not God. And man is imperfect and who's to say if the preacher is hearing from God or not? And who can argue against that!?! Well, the hope is that two changes came about, not just one.  The 1st change was that God would speak though prophets, through preachers, but the second change that also came is He would give us His Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us and His voice would also be within. Not only would God's voice be within, but His voice would also speak through His Word. And so we know have these 3 facets that God speaks to us in the modern era of Christianity. He speaks through His prophets/preachers, His Word and His voice within and the 3 really should mesh together. If we reject the message, then let there be a reason, not just that it goes against our will or what we feel should be, but rather than the 3 voices don't coincide together. God's Word will always be the objective place we can God to to truly know His voice. Our feelings and how we interpret a sermon or what's going on inside of us are all subjective, the question is, does it line up with His word, which is objective? If your heart is right this process works quite well, but when your heart becomes jaded & bitter everything becomes convoluted and the waters become murky like a dirty creek and we find ourselves quite lost and confused, but you will find that the moment you simply decide to obey, the murky waters become clear as a pool and the same message, the same voice, begins to speak, in unison, from all 3 facets, the prophet/preacher, His Word and that sill small voice within.

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