Newsletter - October 2005

Dear Friends:

I hope these crisp fall mornings find you well and contented and warm. Here in Michigan, it’s time to haul out the cozy sweaters and long pants as we sense the sunny summer weather beginning to fade.

The best thing for me about the cool mornings is the warmth of my study as I sit in my chair with the Bible on my lap and a cup of steaming coffee nearby. I have been doing this for enough years now that it is hard to imagine starting my day in any other way. I come to God first thing each morning to experience His presence and His love, to savor teaching from His Word, and to get my marching orders for the day ahead. Are you doing the same? Our styles may be different, but our God is the same and He longs to love us, to teach us, and to direct our steps.

I had the privilege yesterday of visiting with an adult Sunday School class in a nearby town. The class has decided to use The GodSense Devotional as their guide for this year and asked that I come in to help to launch their study. We focused our discussion on the Tuesday sessions of GodSense in which we are challenged to spend time meditating on a specific verse from the Bible and then listening for God’s response. This is hard for many of us as we find it a true discipline to quiet our minds and turn our hearts to receive God’s thoughts.

But I will say to you what I said to yesterday’s class, “Tuesday is the day in which your life can be changed. And Tuesday will be the easiest day to skip, the hardest day to practice. But Tuesday is the key to living a life of meaning, to living life at its depths, to knowing the mind and thoughts of God Himself. Don’t miss Tuesdays with Jesus!”

What many have found is that, once the practice of quietness and meditation before God begins to become a Tuesday habit, it will spread to other days of the week, too, as we begin to connect effectively with God, and hearing His voice becomes the most important focus of our lives. Albert Einstein understood this concept when he said, “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

I have been digging into and brewing on I Corinthians 2 these past few days and am thrilled with its message. If you have a minute, let’s take a look at it together. Paul, the writer, is talking about the difference between worldly wisdom and God’s wisdom and he points out that the two are quite incompatible. Those who are worldly wise see as foolish the things that God declares to be right and true (v. 14). Instead of what the world counts as wise, we are told in verse 7 that God has a “secret wisdom” that He reveals only to those who belong to Him. That revelation comes to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit (vv. 10-12).

It’s pretty exciting to think

• that we have access to God’s secrets!that we can truly know the mind of God (see verse 16).
• that God can plant in our minds, via the Holy Spirit who lives within us, His very thoughts.

I cannot help agreeing wholeheartedly with Paul Tournier who said, “The most precious thing of all is the possibility of being, through the words in my mind or through my inborn unconscious faculties, the recipient of thoughts that come from God.”

But, now we are back to the quietness of Tuesdays. We know that God is willing to share His thoughts with us, but most of us have so much noise in our heads that we cannot hear Him. The Holy Spirit tends to speak quietly and we have television, radio, children, memos, e-mail, and our own thoughts drowning out His gentle whispers. That is why it is so vitally important to our spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional well being to set aside time consistently in which we turn off the noise in our heads and tune in, instead, to the messages of God.

Many of you have been practicing meditation and listening prayer for a time now, but for some of you it is a new concept. It is a very simple process. Nothing to buy. No classes to take. No special equipment or pills or diets needed. Just you and God. Here’s the plan:

• Sit upright in a chair with your feet on the floor and hands in your lap.Relax the muscles of your body from toe to head.Breathe deeply and rhythmically to slow the mind.Turn your thought to God in prayer.
  • Ask Him to protect you from the evil one.
  • Confess any sins that He brings to your mind.
  Focus your mind on a word or Scripture.
• Listen for God’s thoughts to come into your mind.

Don’t give up. Learning to listen to God in this way is a skill that will develop as we practice it and as we learn to yield to Him. But it is a skill well worth sharpening. Living in such vital connection with the God of the universe will change us. How could it not! Our desires will change, our prayers will change, and our lives will never be the same.

So, let’s enjoy our Tuesdays with Jesus and then let the quiet listening spread to other days, too. God honors with His presence and His secret wisdom those who are willing to be still and wait for Him.

Joy and blessings!

Bev

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