Are We Too Busy To Hear?

"A question that must guide all organizing activity in a church is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence."

     - Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

The Noise & The Voice

The Noise & The Voice

(1 Kings 17:1, 19:11-12)

Noise is all around me,

sounds and lights, digital and real,

distracting mind and heart

with the banality of life.

Where is the Voice?

Does He still speak

even in the midst of chaos?

Speak, holy still small voice!

Enable me to hear.

Turn me from the cacophony

to the silence of your desert.

The Voice still speaks!

For you are the God

before whom I stand

Fasting From Noise

From @AnnVoskamp

AmI Quiet Enough?

“If you’re in need of a startling realization in your life, begin with solitude and silence. You may find that God has been trying to get your attention for awhile but you haven’t been able to hear Him. Not because he hasn’t been loud enough, but you haven’t been quiet enough….when God speaks, He often speaks in moments of solitude and silence.”

          -Kyle Idleman, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything

The Noise and The Voice

The Noise & The Voice
(1 Kings 17:1, 19:11-12)

Noise is all around me,
sounds and lights, digital and real,
distracting mind and heart
with the banality of life.

Where is the Voice?
Does He still speak
even in the midst of chaos?

Speak, holy still small voice!
Enable me to hear.
Turn me from the cacophony
to the silence of your desert.

The Voice still speaks!
For you are the God
before whom I stand.
    
   

Speak That I May Hear

Who will bring me to rest in You?

Who will send You into my heart
so to overwhelm it
that my sins will be blotted out
and I may embrace You, my only good?

What are You to me?
Have mercy that I may speak.

What am I to You
that You should command me to love You,
and if I do not,
are angry and threaten vast misery?

Is it, then, a trifling sorrow not to love You?
It is not so to me.

Tell me, by Your mercy, O Lord, my God,
what You are to me.
“Say to my soul, I am your salvation.”

So speak that I may hear.
Behold, the ears of my heart are before You, O Lord;
open them and “say to my soul, I am your salvation.”

I will hasten after that voice,
and I will lay hold upon You.
Hide not Your face from me.
Even if I die, let me see Your face lest I die.

- Augustine of Hippo

HT:  Kingdom People

If God Had a Cell Phone....

I put it off for a long time. For years I simply refused to get a cell phone. Why should I - no one ever calls me anyway?

Finally in 2002 I broke down and did it. I decided it would be good for safety reasons for my wife and I to be able to communicate if there was an emergency. Plus, it made things easier to call my office when on the road for business.

Once I did it I could no longer imagine life without the little contraption. It was very convenient to be able to check in at home or with the office anywhere I went. It did not take long for me to feel naked if I did not have a cell phone clipped to my belt. How could I live without it?! I have to be reachable! I have to be able to reach out and touch my loved ones! Now I am about to upgrade to a newer model. Cell phones are great - even when I don't use mine all that much.

I have often wished God had a cell phone - or email- or even a fax machine. It would be so nice to get direct messages from the Father, and have him be able to hear from me, on a constant regular basis.

Oh wait - I have prayer, I have the Bible. I have the Holy Spirit. Maybe what I HAVE is better than what I WISH for.

I wish I felt as naked without constant prayer, without Bible reading and meditation, as I do without a cell phone.