Month: September 2023

27
Sep
2023

God Speaks

And Samuel said [to the Lord], “Speak, for your servant hears.”  (I Sam 3:10)

I want to hear from you, Lord.  I don’t want a life in which you are far off.  I want your presence, your voice, your direction, your will for my life. 

God still speaks.

Some people want to deny the voice of God today, but He speaks nonetheless.  He has spoken to me concerning my career, education, wife, children, faith, parents, and friends.  He has given me direction concerning my entertainment and health, concerning how to spend my time and His money.  He has spoken to me about my sin and prayers, about the Scriptures and His character.  I would venture to say that God has spoken to me about virtually every aspect of life worth talking about. 

The reason God speaks to His people is that He made us ultimately for relationship with Him, and relationship involves communication.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that God’s communication with His people is a necessary consequence of His restoring us to Himself.  Whatever words you wish to use – salvation, redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, justification, and more – I would argue that the end result of those words is to restore the relationship that existed in the garden before sin entered the world.  The purpose of those acts is to make you an adopted son or daughter of the great king, to unite you with Christ as a bride unites with her husband.  God is your father.  Christ is your groom.  Those are intensely relational concepts that demand ongoing communication. 

I fully understand why nonChristians question the idea of God speaking.  They have no real relationship with God at all, and consequently, can have no deep experience of hearing God’s voice.  But sometimes people who identify as Christians talk as nonChristians do.  This is a bit disconcerting because these people claim salvation but disclaim the relationship that their salvation is supposed to procure.  We are saved so we can be with God and He with us, but if God never speaks anymore, for all practical purposes we are on our own. 

For the Christian, this should never be.  When your sin is gone, God comes to live inside you, and you may approach the throne of grace with boldness.  When your sin is gone, expect a new relationship with God.  Speak to God and let Him speak to you. 

This new relationship with God through Christ requires an investment on your part.  You get out of your relationships what you put into them.

Posted by mdemchsak, 0 comments
13
Sep
2023

Fishing and Writing

At the end of the book of John, Jesus’ disciples are back in Galilee, and Simon Peter decides to go fishing.  A cohort of others joins him, including John, the son of Zebedee.  While they are still on the water, after catching nothing all night, Jesus shows up on the shore and calls to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat.  They do so and wind up catching so many fish that they can’t pull the net into the boat.

After everyone gets to the shore, Jesus has a fire going with fish and bread for breakfast.  He tells them to bring some of their fish.  So they do, and they count them.  John says there were 153 large fish “and although there were so many, the net was not torn” (Jn 21:11).

It is this last bit of the story that I want to comment on.  The number of fish, the size of the fish, and the fact that the net did not tear are utterly extraneous to the story.  By themselves, they are details that serve no purpose to further the story or to convey theological truth, yet somehow the author of John considers these details significant enough to report.

I know that if I were writing this account, I would not have reported the details about the fish and the nets because I would have seen no significance in them.  They mean nothing to me because I don’t know anything about fishing.  These details make sense only if you assume a certain knowledge of first century fishing.  But most people, even in the first century, lack that knowledge. 

Therefore, I see in these details a subtle clue that the author of John knew first century fishing, as if, perhaps, he was a fisherman.

It’s just a whisper of authenticity.

Posted by mdemchsak, 0 comments