Do you realize that God is speaking today? He is speaking and He is making His message clear to those who will listen. The problem is that most people are not listening. People are listening to celebrities, news anchors, co-workers, friends, and relatives, but not to God. Thus the direction of their lives and the direction of our world is way off base and increasingly so.
When someone is building a house, the first tools that come out are the foundational ones. The house needs to be secure on its foundation and it needs to be straight. The plumb line, the t-square, and the level are three instruments which are so essential to the building. If the first lines are not straight, the building will not be straight , and the error will show increasingly as the construction proceeds.
This is something I know about personally, because our family lives in a home which was built in 1877. We purchased the house from my husband’s father, whose family had owned it since 1884. It’s been quite an experience, to say the least. (My husband calls it the “handyman’s dream”). When visitors come over, they usually want to look around and observe some of the historical aspects. One conversation piece is that our kitchen and dining room are not square: the walls are not straight and the floors are not level. The really interesting thing is that over the years, people have worked around those errors as they have renovated. For instance, some of the doors are not even on the bottom, and the baseboards are taller on one side of the room than the other. Rather than fixing the problems, they have worked around them.
That’s something we have done in our society. We have worked around our errors, rather than fixing them. Francis Schaeffer made a similar observation in his book, The God Who Is There. He said that when abstract art came into vogue in the beginning of the 20th century, it was a symbol of a society which wanted no more rules. And when there are no rules, anything goes. “If it feels good, do it.” “Look out for number one.” Selfishness, greed,and lawlessness began to fester in the debris of such an attitude. And all of the ills of our society today can be traced to one of these three.
So back to God and what He is saying… He is standing and knocking at the door of hearts all around the world. Is your heart one of them? If so, listen. He is drawing people back to Him. He is telling people how much He loves them and how great His plans are if they will just listen.
Are you living a life where there are no rules? Are you selfishly pursuing prestige and power with no regard for others around you? Even if you say that you are a Christian, you may be pulled into the popular thought of the day which exalts “self” at any cost.
I’m here to tell you that there is a better way, a healthier way, a happier way. True happiness is never found by living the selfish, anything goes life. You may be able to distract yourself in the middle of it with travel, or alcohol, or drugs. You may be able to distract yourself so much, in fact, that you will not notice for awhile that you are empty. But the day will come – or the night will come when you will lie there, staring into space aware of the emptiness and the loneliness. Life was not meant to be lived that way, and eventually it will catch up with you. Your building is crooked – you didn’t use a plumb line.
So God is calling us to wake up and realize that there is another way. He wants us to wake up to His love and His plan. He wants us to enter into a new realm of understanding what life is all about. Life is eternal, and how we are living really does matter.
You see, when I talked about the rules earlier, I didn’t mean a set of laws which we obey on our own. There is a great mystery when we walk with God. We literally become changed from within. We find ourselves wanting to help others. We find ourselves wanting to please God in all that we do, and we become empowered to do it.
God is certainly speaking to those who will listen. And those who listen and heed His nudge, will enter into a totally new existence. They will find that Jesus is real. His Word is true. And life with Him is the most satisfying existence they have ever known.
Take your Bible – or go buy one if you don’t have one – and begin to read. Start with Matthew and ask God to show you the truth. If you are a Christian and you have been slack in this, I encourage you now to do this also. Spend time everyday reading from the Word. Think about what you are reading, and write down some verses which will remind you throughout the day. (I can hear some saying that they are too smart for this, but you’re wrong. God is smarter than you are, and He has some things to tell you, too, if you will listen).
Are you ready to hear? Are you ready to obey when He speaks to you? I believe that you are and many blessings in your pursuit.
Forever Upward!
