Whispers of God

From Paul Cameron, EO:

Recently I have been writing a bit on this blog about renewal, and in particular, renewal prayer. Another important aspect of renewal is the missional spiritual practice of ‘Dwelling in the Word’.

I was encouraged this week to discover that in one of our churches 50 of the 70-80 or so attenders are embarking on an ‘E100 Challenge’. This challenge involves reading 100 essential biblical texts—50 Old Testament and 50 New Testament, and it takes readers through the narrative of Scripture. The readings are achievable, 1-2 chapters long and take about 10 minutes each. The E100 Challenge is a Scripture Union initiative (find out more at www.e100challenge.com.au ). The purpose of the E100 Challenge is to reclaim the place of the text in the lives of people who are working out what it means to follow Jesus in the 21^st Century. As SU says, “The Bible is getting pushed to the outer realms of importance and even Christians are valuing it less and less. Statistics tell us that fewer than 25% of Christians read their Bible weekly, and most find it difficult to uncover any relevance and power for their lives”. I love the E100 idea!

I find dwelling in the Word or text is one of the places where I can hear the ‘whispers of God’ most clearly. So the question for us at this time of the year is this: What are you hearing this Christmas? We may hear him in the sounds of Christmas carols, Christmas sermons, and Christmas greetings. Maybe we will hear him in the voice of a newly born family member or another nearby child. Perhaps we will hear him in the silence that may be your Christmas (welcome or unwelcome as it may be).

In the spirit of the season then (and in the spirit of the question “what are you hearing this Christmas?”), I give to you the following reflection from a writer whose daily life places him in the world of NASA in the US. He has heard the whisper of God in his life because of the whisper of God he heard (and we also hear) in the old, old story of Christmas, which he hears as an ‘unplanned journey’. Maybe a gift you can give yourself this year is to hear the whisper of God in a new way in that old story.

Have a great Christmas, and I look forward to talking with you again next year.

~~~

With Us On Unplanned Journeys by Alan WardRead Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. (Luke 2:1)

Have you ever had to take a journey you didn’t want to take? Maybe you had to go somewhere you didn’t want to go or at a time that was nowhere near convenient?

My wife Laurie and I have been on one of those unplanned journeys of late. On September 30 we had a sewage backup in our basement and were displaced from our home for over two months. The (denominational) District Superintendent decreed that the parsonage at Lodge Forest was no longer fit for us to live in and we needed to seek alternate housing.  We spent almost 10 weeks in a hotel while we searched for a new place to call home. We finally found a house to move into (around the corner from where we were!) but this required packing and moving a few weeks before Christmas. Of all the times a pastoral family might choose to move their home, three weeks before Christmas is about the least preferred option.

The trip Mary & Joseph took from Nazareth to Bethlehem was one of those unplanned journeys.  …  Click here to read more