And he speaks

After Exodus 20:1-2 

And, signifying all

that came before

is connected to what

follows, he speaks,

the voice to be heeded,

the voice to attend,

the voice like no other,

the voice that spoke

creation into existence,

he speaks. He is the Lord,

the Lord our God; he speaks

in the voice that all

hear, all understand.

He is our God, the God

who brought us out

of slavery, out of Egypt,

into the land he promised,

calling us back, striking

the chains that bind us.

The voice is the voice

of the one who made us,

the one who delivered us.

 

Photograph by Irina Iriser via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Biblical Perspective about Obedience at Work – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

When You Fear Your Best Days Are Behind You – Lois Flowers. 

 

Modern Mysticism: Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Reading is Fundamental – Marty Machowski at New Growth Press.

 

This Who Make Them Become Like Them – Brad Littlejohn at Commonwealth Dispatches.

 

The Unity of Charity: C.S. Lewis and the End of Ecumenism – Michael Ward at An Unexpected Journal. 

The Speaking Voice

I loved the Gospel of St. John. It was the first Bible text I was directed to read after becoming a Christian, and I have returned to it over and over again in the intervening years.

It was quite a few years after that first reading when I learned something I found fascinating about the “Word” of the first verse of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I knew the “Word” meant Jesus; what I didn’t know was the Greek word for “Word” literally means “spoken word.”

Before the written word was the spoken word. And the written word did not replace the spoken word. The spoken word still is. As A.W. Tozer writes in The Pursuit of God, “His world-filling Voice…antedates the Bible by uncounted centuries, that Voice which has not been silent since the dawn of creation, but is sounding still throughout the far reaches of the universe.”

When I learned that “Word” was literally “spoken word,” I was just starting what became my speechwriting career. The understanding has a profound impact. My small, pale, tiny, faint echoes of the spoken voice of creation was indeed small, pale, tiny and faint, but it was also an echo. What I was doing in my day-to-day work was my human imitation of speaking something from nothing, because every speech begins in chaos, and it begins with a blank page.

Simply learning that literal meaning of “Word” transformed how I considered, developed and judged my work. What I was doing mattered, if for no other reason than it pointed to the original Creator. And I had a compass for looking at the speeches of others. I could transcend political and policy differences and look at what was being said and how it was being said, and learn to write better.

Granted, this career epiphany happened at likely the last possible moment it could have happened. This was before PowerPoint destroyed speech texts, replacing them with bullet points, and before media training had burned “stick to your three key message points, and only your three key message points” into speakers’ brains. This was also before everything in society and culture was viewed through the lens of extreme polarization, at least within the last 100 years.

The Word of God is still “sounding through the far reaches of the universe.” All we have to do is listen.

Led by Jason Stayszsen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been discussing The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. This week and next week we’re covering chapter 6, “The Speaking Voice.” To see other posts on the chapter, please visit Sarah’s site, Living Between the Lines, for her own post and the links to those by others.

Hearing the Voice

Have you ever heard the voice of God? Have you ever heard the voice of God speak directly to you?

In Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis and Beth Clark, Katie hears the voice of God. And He specifically tells her that the name of the next child becoming part of her family will be Sarah. And – it is. A grandmother returns again and again begging Katie to adopt her two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, who is unable to walk. Katie keeps refusing – she already has too many children she’s adopted. Or so she thinks.

The little girl’s name turns out to be Sarah. Katie accepts her, and changes her name, since there’s already one Sarah in the family. The little girl’s new name is Grace – Amazing Grace (the title of this chapter).

It’s a story that brings tears to your eyes. The little girl who couldn’t walk is going to learn to walk.

Miracles do happen. And Katie does hear God’s voice.

I asked myself if I’ve ever heard God’s voice speaking clearly and directly to me. (And I asked myself that if I talked about it here at this blog, would people wonder if I’ve lost my mind.)

The short answer is no, at least not like Katie did when she hears the name of the child.

I’ve talked before about an experience I had in Erfurt, Germany. I didn’t hear a voice, but something happened in that church there, something I still can’t really explain.

I was once sitting in a school board meeting (yes, a school board meeting), and suddenly felt surrounded by what I can only describe as dark, dark shadows. It was short-lived, but it was definitely one of most disconcerting feelings I’ve experienced.

But I can’t say I’ve ever heard a voice speaking plainly in my head.

I can’t count the times I’ve heard people – often certain televangelists – talk about God speaking to them like He was sitting across the table.

And I’ve read dozens of times about writers who believe they have been specifically called by God to write. I often wish I had that kind of assurance. I’m a writer, but I have to confess that God never called me to write. Writing is something I do, it is both my vocation and avocation, and I want to honor God in what I write. But I can’t say I ever heard God tell me to be a writer.

What I have heard or experienced, however, is God speaking in circumstances and through other people.

You hear a missions director at church speak of the need for sponsors for children overseas, and while there’s normal human compassion involved, you also know – really know – that you’re supposed to step up.

Or you hear about someone’s physical or emotional or financial need, or you see and elderly and infirm person struggling, or you see someone’s spirit crushed, or you learn that this stranger sitting beside you on the airplane has just lost a loved one and is struggling – and you know you’re being called to do something. Perhaps it’s only to listen, or to provide some temporary assistance, or just be there, but you know.

I hear God’s voice in the Bible; it’s hard to avoid God’s voice in the Bible, because that’s where it’s the most accessible.

No, I can’t say I’ve heard God’s voice speaking like Katie Davis did in the case of Amazing Grace. I believe it happened exactly the way she describes it.

Things might be simpler – or possibly more difficult – if I did hear “the voice” telling me something very specific.

But I believe anyway.

Led by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been discussing Kisses from Katie. To see more posts on this chapter, please visit Sarah at Living Between the Lines.