Dear SCC & Friends,
Do you not know? ~Isaiah 40:28
Reflection #221
I knew some things but really didn’t know until I knew. It took someone else to tell me, to show me and secure me in my faith! And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?… ~Rom. 10:14 Everyone who calls, “Help God!” gets help. But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust, if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them unless someone is sent to do it? But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is, Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to. ~Rom. 10:13-14, 16 MSG Hearing God is about the very specific issue of what it means to live with guidance in our life. ~Dallas Willard~
The Lord will meet us where we are in order to take us where He wants us to be. It happened to me fifty-two years ago. I found myself engaged in conversation with a missionary couple from Australia. It started as a stimulating exchange of perspectives on faith and practice. I had no intentions of converting to their point of view but was intrigued by their strong faith and conviction. What unfolded that afternoon is hard to describe, but at one point he told me why Christ died for me, and it was as if I had never heard it before. I had been in church all my life, studied the lives of the saints, prayed and even served as an altar boy. I knew Jesus died for my sins, but it didn’t seem very important until it was the most important thing I had ever heard. That day a twenty-four-year-old backslidden skeptic became a committed believer. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. ~Rom. 10:17 That day I was transferred from the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light. Each of us has a story… some more dramatic than others but no less impacting in God’s purposes. We were made for these days… Keep up the good work!
Our Redeemer lives,
Kevin