Pressing Onward - Hearing God Chapter Two

It was interesting for me to go back and read over the beginnings of this book study on my blog and realize that I had been inclined to focus on very different points in my first reading. Now, I suppose I take some of the earlier truths that I learned for granted and am beginning to be able to find new truths to grapple with in my reading. I think this is the way that God intends to reveal Himself to us through scriptures, giving us layer upon layer of Himself, unfolding Himself one truth at a time.

Yesterday in church, I played "How Firm a Foundation" on my violin. Building this foundation through "His excellent Word" as the hymn sings, is this process of accepting one truth and then stacking upon it another... and another... and another. I used to think that the need to review something I'd already read was a weakness I should not allow myself. What a know-it-all! I now find that I love to reread novels and literary classics and passages of scripture. It's amazing what you can glean the second and third time through!

Now onto chapter two of Willard...

This second chapter led me to think about the role of marriage in God's kingdom. I'm probably not the only one who has ever wondered why in the world Christ would say that marriage does not exist in heaven. I think about how much time and effort goes into this primary relationship of our lives, and I wonder what is it all for if it is not eternal? Well, scripture answers this by referring to marriage as a mysterious earthly example of Christ's relationship to the church.

Willard says that "God’s speaking is intended to develop into an intelligent freely cooperative relationship between mature people who love each other [with agape love] (HG 31)." This cancels out what I was blogging about yesterday, the idea that we can simply go to God to receive our daily list of to do's, and an answer for all of our questions. This relationship with God is RECIPROCAL. It is a marriage relationship.

The ladies of my church are studying Debbie Pearl's Helpmeet, a book on the role of the wife in marriage. It occurred to me yesterday in Sunday school that it would be quite possible to go all of my married life doing all the things that the book suggests that I am meant to do (based on Debbie's interpretation of scripture). I could do these things and generate the APPEARANCE of a great marriage without ever really having a REAL marriage, a real relationship with my husband. By never really stopping long enough to seek to understand my husband - who he is, what his dreams are, what drives him to do what he does - I could in fact be married without having a marriage.

This is what we so often do to God, however. When we approach Him simply as someone to be obeyed and not questioned, someone who cannot be understood, someone who will always be out of reach, we are truly saying that he is UNREASONABLE. Willard often points out in Hearing God that one of our biggest drawbacks in our faith is the assumptions we have about God. He writes about one such assumption in the fact that we often approach scripture with the mindset that we are reading "a book of doctrine, abstract truth about God." This creates a barrier between the reader and God so that "one can search endlessly without encountering God himself or hearing his voice (HG 35)."

It is not until we begin to value the revelation of the character of God through His word, until we truly pray for the desire to know God intimately, that we will begin to journey toward the union that God so earnestly desires to have with us as His creation - that normal life of God's indwelling.

Willard leaves us with two reminders in chapter two regarding our attitude when God does begin to reveal Himself to us. First, he writes that "God’s speaking to us does not in itself make us important (HG 38)." When we receive direct communication from someone of importance, it is often difficult for us not to share this information with others in a way that indicates our own significance in the eyes of our audience. We tend to like to "be in the know," and to make others feel our importance. God's communication, however, should always encourage not our pride, but our humility. We are important to God, but He does not choose to speak to us because we are important.

Lastly, Willard reminds us that "God’s speaking to us does not prove us either righteous or right (HG 39)." I think that this may be hard to grasp, because it seems that God's speaking to us would be a way in which He imparts His will to us. If I follow that will, then it would seem that I were acting in a right way, that I were living righteously even. However, I think the attitude that Willard is exposing in this statement is one we might have when we begin to, again, puff ourselves up with the idea that we are somehow deserving of God's communication because of our own righteousness.

I do not think that God's overtures of communication toward us are conditional on our attitudes, our assumptions, or the general condition of our hearts. God called me when I was in sin, He can speak to any of us whenever and however He chooses. What is conditional on our attitudes, our assumptions, and the general condition of our hearts is our own ability to perceive God's voice and what He is saying to us.

Okay, I'd better get ready for work, before I follow another tangent of conversation on this topic. Feel free to comment...

Back to Hearing God - Chapter One

Okay, since it's been a long, long time since I posted anything on this book study, I've decided to start back at the beginning. After putting the book aside for quite some time, I decided there was more to be gleaned from finishing it. But here on the blog, I'm starting back with chapter one, hoping it might be helpful to me and to others to make some basic observations (bringing Willard out of the clouds and hopefully putting some of his ideas in laymen's terms)...

In looking at what I've hi-lighted, the first thing I saw as being important to reiterate is what Willard expresses as "the blasphemous idea that everything that happens in this world is caused by God (HG 18)." Not to delve deeply into what could quickly become a Calvinist/Armenian debate, there is a point at which a believer must realize that though nothing in life can escape God's control, yet not all things are DIRECTLY caused by God. If you look at the classic story of Job, I think this fact is fairly clearly evidenced.

God ALLOWED Job to suffer, but God was not the CAUSE of this suffering. In fact, contrary to what Job's friends believed, Job's suffering was not even a result of Job's own sin. There are times that we must recognize that God is not to be blamed for certain events in our lives, though He retains control of both our lives and the situations which effect them. I think parenthood might give us the easiest approach toward grasping this idea.

As a parent, my actions assist in bringing my child into existence (and facilitate its continuance). There are times that I directly intervene in my child's life, even cause what seems like suffering to my child as a means of discipline or protection. There are other times when my child suffers by his or her own hand, reaping the consequences of his own sin or poor choices. At times I may have the opportunity to step in to stop my child from experiencing the consequence, but I choose to ALLOW this peril to befall him or her, knowing that as James says in scripture, "the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

This may seem like a tangential conversation, but it is essential that the believer understand that God is not to be blamed in suffering, which Paul tells us is the NORMAL existence for the Christian. Actually, I would venture to say that to be devoid of trials and suffering is to be devoid of Christ himself. In fact, what Dillard speaks about as "The normal human life God intended for us: God’s indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship (HG 18)" has everything to do with trial and will involve its fair share of pain.

Willard laments (and I do with him), that far too often "Our relationship with God is treated as no more than a mere arrangement or understanding that Jesus and his Father have about us (HG 22)." I know I am guilty of thinking that way from time to time. With this attitude, we relegate God to an adopted philosophy, in turn not only missing out on the fellowship we could experience with Him, but also starving ourselves of what both Willard and scripture refer to as the "daily bread" of "personal communion and communication with God (HG 23)."

Out of the midst of trial and suffering so common in the Christian faith comes the instinctual desire to reach out to God Himself as the source of our comfort, relief, and REST. We cannot reach out to a mere god who is the central figure of our life philosophy. He is no more than the one on whom we can cast blame when events turn against us. Besides this, continually treating God in this non-relational manner will lead us "to abandon faith in our ability to hear from God," an action that Willard declares "is to abandon the reality of a personal relationship with God" entirely (HG 26).

Blasphemy of this sort is far more dangerous than blatant disbelief. Buy into the idea that communication with God is simply something that happened in the Old Testament and therefore no longer relevant in our day and age, and you have effectively ripped the very heart out of your own spiritual life. Perhaps as dangerous, though, is approaching communication with God as a means of determining every direction for your own life. Willard bluntly states: "Extreme pre-occupation with knowing God’s will for me only indicates my overconcern for myself (HG 28)."

Our goal then is not only to recognize that God has the power and desire to communicate with us as His creation regularly and intimately, but it is also to recognize that God desires much more than to provide a daily dictation of directions for our lives. Even more, it is not until we take the focus off of our selves and dedicate our full attention to God's greater purpose that we can fully accept the suffering that has been granted to us on behalf of Christ. This is what God wishes to communicate to all who long to have the normal life He intended - His indwelling of His creation on a daily basis, providing for every need, fulfilling every created purpose in human life.

Lamentations

I was just lamenting the fact that a friend had not posted since September 19 (or was it the 16th?). Anyway, I suddenly realized how hypocritical that was coming from someone whose last post was on the 5th of the month that is now nearly over!
This month has been a, well, a HELL OF A MONTH. And I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. Right now I am lamenting the loss of this month, because I have only a few weeks left before I head to Montgomery to take my Series Seven licensing exam.
So much has happened in the past month. Geoff and I went through a harrowing trial of the progress we've made in our marriage relationship - and came through with a sense that what God builds, nothing can destroy. That was both a hardship and a blessing. Also this month, a friend of mine was sent to jail on murder charges. Definitely not an easy thing to deal with. And in the midst of it, another major hardship has befallen my foo (family of origin).
I am impressed by some of what I've been reading lately in Dallas Willard (I plan to update the blog with some of my learnings soon). Willard says, wisely I think, that it is only the immature believer who thinks that to be in God's will means to live a life that is devoid of risk and hardship. Like Job's friends, we too often look on from the outside at those who are suffering and wag our tongues about what that person should have done differently. We too often assume that they must be acting apart from God's will if these trials are upon them. It is just as likely, if not more likely when the sufferer is a growing believer, that they ARE in the midst of God's perfect will and that it is BECAUSE they have chosen to stay within his will that they are living in these trials.
This is certainly not the easiest theology to swallow, especially when you or a loved one are/is the one who suffers. More on this later. For now, it's off to work I go...

Last But Not Least (More Pics...)

This barn was one of the first things that we saw as we entered Serenbe. I would love to go back and ride there. The surrouding land is beautiful. The barn is magnificent.

And if you're impressed by the barn, check out the gate to the entryway. Yes, it actually works!

And the end of it is full of horseshoes. I'm sure it has some sort of significance (luck?). At any rate, we were properly amazed by the thing...

Our final destination was the aquarium in Atlanta, where we met up with my sister and her brood. I tried to get pics in there, but only one turned out somewhat decently, so here is M checking out the fishies.

More Trip Pics

This old barn was the Welcome Center for our trip. Most of the buildings on the farm were at least 100 years old....

This was the back entry to the main house. I didn't get a good picture of the whole house, but our bedroom was right off this entry way.


Here was the view from our room. This place was charmingly landscaped!

Truly a Happy Anniversary

So we started the day out right. Happy Anniversary #4. A beautiful end to an entirely conflict-free August (the first, I might add, in our marriage). And hub was off to a great start - who could go wrong with red roses?

Next it was off for a little R & R at a B & B. If the picture looks like we went to a farm, that's because we did. Check out Serenbe at serenbe.com. If you live anywhere near Atlanta and want to get away for a night or two, here's your spot.

We stayed in the honeymoon suite, a first for us, and I am trying to include several photos, so we might have more than one blog entry. You can see from the pictures that it was a rainy weekend, but that was okay since we had more to do indoors than out.

We entered our room in the main house through this lovely little entry way. We adjoined the restaurant and the food smells were tantalizing (the food itself was even better than it smelled).

Anyway, my apologies for taking a picture of the room after we messed it up and with poor lighting. I totally forgot my camera and all of the picture I'm sharing are from my camera phone. However, the room was all in white and was enormous. And we had a great time and I can't wait for the opportunity to do something like this again.

Check the next posts for some more pics of our trip...