Doing to Know

There are thousands of self-help manuals available for us today.  My favorite is a set of books from the "For Dummies" series.  That is basically how I feel about most things that I currently do not know how to do.  One of my great weaknesses is that I am quick to not do things that I don't know how to do.  But the problem is just reading instructions doesn't suddenly make me capable.

You can't learn to ride a bike by reading about it.  It requires you actually getting on the bike and pedaling.  And when you eventually learn, it is a skill that really never leaves you.  The subconscious mind integrates the sense of balance and propulsion in the permanent recesses of your brain so that it actually becomes impossible to remember what it felt like to NOT know how to bike. 

All the books and well diagramed instructions do not suddenly make you an expert, or, even capable of completing a task.  Practice and repetition are the only tools we have available to us to go from non-bike riders to Lance Armstrong(I wanted to pick a non-drug user...but seriously, who knows a clean biker....let alone another biker at all.....)

How would you respond to someone refusing to learn to ride a bike until they had read enough books and grasped all the nuances of balance and physics?  This is clearly an absurd demand to make before you get on a bike and start trying.  It is wildly unhelpful to set such a high bar of "understanding" without actually engaging and experiencing the thrill of actually riding a bike.  My son was really stand offish about his bike for almost a year.  Just in the past month he discovered how much fun it is and now he wants to do it every day.  For the longest time he avoided it because it seemed scary.  All the explanations in the world didn't change his mind....then...he actually tried it. 

Understanding God, grasping the Gospel, engaging with Scripture is a daunting task.  Even Paul in Philippians talks about how even he struggles with the mystery of how he, a sinner, gets to participate in the Gospel of the Cross.  Yet we often keep God at a distance because we don't "get" everything.  Before we come to Christ we want every nuance and detail explicitly spelled out.  And until it is done to OUR satisfaction...no dice.

If we really lived out that mindset in our lives we would be a bunch of non-bike riders.  Even as we watch others fly by us on their magical two wheeled contraptions we would refuse to even put hands to handle bars. 

In John 7:14-24 Jesus is teaching at the Temple and causing quite a commotion.  Everyone wants to know where He gets off speaking with such authority.  What does Jesus respond?  "If anyone desires to do God's will, they will know whether the teaching is from God or I am speaking on my own authority"(John 7:17). 

The pre-requisite for knowing God's will is the desire to do God's will.  The practical engagement of this is found in the "action" of desiring to do God's will.  Meaning, if you desire to do God's will, then you WILL do God's will.  Jesus is expanding the understanding of God's will and revelation to people and as they feel challenged by it, he puts the burden on the listeners.  If they want to know if what they are hearing is true, they have to be first engaged in doing what they already know to be true. 

If you expect all your questions and problems to be answered in nice concise ways BEFORE you engage....you are going to miss the boat.  When doubts assail you and your heart is struggling, do what you do know.  Can I answer the question for you about what happened to the ancient Australian Aborigine from 3000 BC?  No.  But does the lack of an "adequate" answer justify the jettisoning of what else you know is true?  Of course not.

To know how to ride a bike, you have to get on it and find out that it is good.  To know God's will and His truth you have to engage with what you do know and you may just may be finding yourself flying down the road with the wind in your hair. 

All the books in the world with all the answers in the world will not help you know what is true if your heart does not first desire to know God's will. 

When God's Will Is Difficult

One of our cultures greatest weaknesses is our unwillingness to deal with anything that makes us uncomfortable.  We seek out friendships, voices, activities that reinforce what we already want to believe and do.  Challenges are just too.....challenging.  A common refrain is that we want people to just accept us just as we are.  Which is itself a philosophy built upon the premise that the way we currently are is perfectly fine and acceptable.  Of course there are other people who should change, but not us, we are just fine.

This has bled deeply into the American Christian identity.  We proof text scripture to affirm ourselves.  Jesus is bent and twisted to conform to fitting into a that "celebrates" whatever it is we already have decided in our hearts to do.  Or, we just ignore Him all together and pursue whatever it is we want. 

The will of God is a difficult thing to grasp and pursue.  Often, we falsely assume the will of God is that we are to be "happy".  And if things fall outside of that spectrum we claim to be following the will of God by jettisoning it.  As a 30 something year old Pastor I can tell you of multiple stories of people, who claim to be Christian, who are leaving/left their spouse because they weren't "happy".  And since God clearly WANTS them to be happy, it is God's will that they abandon their vows.....

When did God's will become a tool to achieve personal happiness???

There is something very interesting when you study the immediate effects of following God's will in Scripture; It is really difficult and often unenjoyable.  Perhaps you can set me straight, but I cannot think of an event in the Bible where following the Will of God led to some sort of immediate personal satisfaction and "happiness".  Paul followed God's will to great personal trials.  Abraham gave up comfort to follow after God to a place he knew nothing about.  Jesus submitted to the Father's will, even to the death.

"Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done" 
            - Matthew 26:42

Even Jesus, when seeing what the immediate experience of following God's will was, prayed for another path. 

Following God's will is never easy.

But it is always worth it.  It is always the best.

Catch this important line in this passage, "if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it..."  God's will was deeply rooted in dealing with a deep problem.  Sin.  Sin had to be dealt with.  It had to be defeated.  And the cup of God's wrath that Jesus is referencing had to be drunk.  Either by Jesus, or, by us. 

And that is the beautiful thing about God's will for us.  What He calls us to isn't pointless and without immeasurable value.  It is the exact perfect and right answer to our problem.  If Jesus had not submitted to God's will, as difficult as it was to follow, the beauty of salvation would not be ours.  Sin would not be defeated, death would have the final triumph. 

When you think about God's will in your life, are you willing to drink whatever it is that He has for you?  Or do you only want that which gives you what you want?  God's will is what will lead us to the beauty that our hearts ache for.  But it is often a path that is much more difficult than what selfishness and shortsightedness desires. 

Are you looking for just right now, or, for always?

Another View on Bad Things Happening(to me)

I am writing this one more for my slower witted readers (oscar) who have trouble following a long posting that doesn't include pictures.....

If you do not believe in God, or more specifically, the God of the Bible.  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This post is not really "designed" to speak to your concerns.

     In my many years in ministry leadership I have had the privilage to counsel a number of people in different stages of life.  A consistent theme I run across is peoples frustration with the perception that God has allowed bad things to happen to "them".  Example:  A relationship didn't work out, lonliness, lack of feeling connected to God, depression, etc.  What I am about to say in response in no way is meant to belittle these confessed feelings and hurts, but listen carefully.

        100 times out of 100 the problem is not that God didn't "watch out" for them, but that they are themselves at fault for the problems they are facing.  It is human nature to blame shift.  The terrible, day ruining, comic strip, "Family Circus", has a running "joke" of a little ghost child labeled "not me" that shows up whenever the obvious perpertrator of some "crime" is trying to pretend it wasn't them.  At an early age we begin a process of telling everyone that whatever bad just happened in no way is related to what we are doing, and we often say it enough that we convince our own selves of this blatant lie.

   When we do this on a personal and spiritual level we are being as absurd and illogical as the "not me" child of "Family Circus".  As our lives are in complete disarray, we tend to say "not me" and look to blame the person we assume should have our backs...no matter what we do!  A simple illustration of this is in the most commonaly complained about situation I deal with:

      Upset person:  I feel like God just doesn't care, I feel very alone, I am depressed, why isn't God helping me have peace.
       Me:  So what have you done, or, are you doing, to deal with these feelings?
      U.P.:  Nothing....
     Me:  Have you shared this with your close christian friends
     U.P.:  (two possible responses)  1)  no, I don't feel comfortable talking about it, 2) I don't have any close christian friends
     Me:  Have you been spending time in God's word
     U.P.:  No
    Me:  Are you praying about this
     U.P.:  (two possible responses) 1) No  2) I did...a couple of times
     Me:  Are you going regularly to fellowship with other christians?
    U.P.:  (two possible responses) 1) No  2)  Yes, but they would judge me if I told them what was going on, so I just show up and go home as soon as it is over
  
  I am in no way exagerrating to tell you that I have lost count of the number of times and different types of situations that I have had almost this exact conversation.  In case you are lost as to how this all ties into being "your" fault, let me explain.

   We are not promised that being a Christian is going to equate to having a great, peaceful and succesful life.  We are promised that in the midst of a broken and hurting world we can have hope, peace, and an abundance of Joy.  But, as I mentioned in my last post, we have this sticky little problem called free will.  We demand that God gives us what He has promised in His word, on OUR terms.  Every day we make choices that are in opposition to God's will and call on our lives, and then we turn around and say "Dang it God!!  Why did you let that happen to me?!?!" 

    Analogy to illustrate this absurdity:  You buy a new car.  You proceed to go offroading daily, never put the right kind of gas in, never change(or put in) oil, etc.  After a few months your new car is completely falling apart.  Angirly you head back to the dealership and demand a refund because your car is not working the way it did when you took it off the lot on the first day.  They would laugh in your face.  You cannot expect to break all the rules and the terms of agreement for a warranty, not to mention basic common sense, and have someone else make sure you still have working car!  Yet, we expect God to do that for us.

   Without going step by step through what someone should be doing in any given situation, let me just leave it at this.  We often are angry at God about the bad things in our lives, when the reality is we have set ourselves up through own sinful choices and actions to suffer through whatever it may be that we are struggling with.  I have yet to meet someone who is struggling with any given situation who has pursued the biblical God called steps to dealing with whatever the situation may be!  And that is for 2 reasons:  1)  If you are pursuing whole heartedly the truth of God's call in your life, the problems you are facing probably wouldn't exist   2)  If you are truly walking through the steps, I have total confidence in the exponential increasing of your peace, joy and hope in the midst of whatever your problem is! 

   The root sin issue we all struggle with is pride.  At the heart of everything we do in rejection of God is a pride that says, "no God, you can't be right about "that", let's do it MY way".  We need to stop embracing sin and rejecting God's clearly explained plans and purposes and then turning around to be angry when we experience the natural results of living outside of our design.

Why does God allow Evil?

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

- Epicurus [341–270 B.C].

                You have not been in many arguments about the nature of God and the reality of suffering and evil in this world if you have not come across this quote in some form.  It was one of the most significant “stumbling blocks” that is employed as an argument against God’s existence, or, more specifically, the existence of the Biblical God.  All good questions deserve a good answer.  And I would say that this is one of the best questions that has been asked of Christianity in 2,000 years. 

                So how does one begin to justify the seemingly contradictory existence of a self-proclaimed Good God and the existence of evil and suffering.  This is an inevitable challenge for us to wrestle with due to our core beings.  We naturally gravitate towards wanting to do good things for people we love and want to help them avoid bad things happening to them.  In Matthew 7:11 Jesus even observes that even evil people will give good things to their children.  If we are to believe that we are Children of God, it is natural for our first response to our lack of good things, or, the perceived lack of good things for others, seems to be painting a picture of God not being half as loving as even an imperfect parent!

                As I mentioned in my preview post for this blog, this week I am assisting in the officiating for the funeral of a 22 year old man.  His death came as a shock to everyone in his family.  Especially his young mother and 14 year old brother.  They are currently embroiled in the soul scorching pain of losing someone immeasurably close and valuable without warning.  It is understandable in the midst of their grief to be questioning how God could allow something so tragic to occur.  For them, it is not a philosophical exercise to contemplate the Goodness of God in the midst of this time, it is the most challenging moment in their lives.  They are not able to find solace in the intellectualism of the class room philosophical lecture or the spoon fed spiritualism often spouted from a pulpit.  Their needs are much more practical and immediate.

                Where does God enter into this story?  How do I, in the role of Pastoral counselor, speak to them in a way to help lead towards peace?  Before I can answer the details of God’s Goodness existing in tandem with the worlds evil, we first must deal with hope.  And where is hope to be found?  It is found in the end of the story.

                When people complain about an uncaring Deity who turns his head away while we struggle here alone they are doing so by only focusing on one aspect of the character of God and God’s plan in the bible.  It is an incomplete process to proof text scripture, pull out quotes about God being good, turn and compare it to the “reality” we perceive, and trumpet that as proof of the bible being untrustworthy and God untrue.  If we are going to glam onto statements of God’s goodness we also have to look at what he promises us in the context of his goodness.

               

                Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down  out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                  He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the    thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

                                                                                                -Revelation 21:1-7

                We become so transfixed on the “now” that we miss that God has an ultimate plan that he is working towards through ourselves and through this world.  He does not promise that this life will be without pain and suffering, but he does promise that he will make all things right.  The reality of sin has transformed God’s perfect design into a perversion of itself.  But, He is working all things towards a day when “every tear will be wiped away”!  If I am to have any hope in the goodness of God it is found not in whether or not “now” is good, but it is found in the hope I have in what my forever will be. 

                Our currently limited perspectives cause us to often become short sighted and consumed by what is happening to us right now.  Now, I do not mean in any way to diminish anyone’s suffering, but we on a simpler level recognize that we have to have the end goal in mind when we confront any difficult circumstance.  When a marathon runner is in the middle of a difficult training run, they cannot be consumed with the now, they have to focus on first, the limited nature of the training run and second, that a greater joy will be theirs if they can simply hold on and complete the race that is before them. 

                In much the same way we have to realize that where we are now is a finite and transient time.  We are made for something much greater and eternal.  While suffering is suffering, and evil is evil, having the reliability of hope in God’s ultimate promise can help us to continue on even while the now seems bleak and desperate. 

                All of this does in no way mean that God does not care what is happening to you in the now.  We see in Scripture that God is heartbroken over the rebellion of this world.  Not only is he heartbroken, but he is impassioned with just anger over evil perpetrated upon His children.  Matthew 23:37 paints a beautiful picture for us of Jesus’s heartbreak over our condition. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing”   The wording and imagery that is utilized in the passage here would indicate that Jesus is speaking with great emotion, and that the word longing could be better translated from the Greek as a sort of groaning.  As if from his innermost being he is aching to take care of his lost people.

                What we often miss as we read over this passage showing Jesus’ passion for taking care of us is that it is dependent upon US!  Jesus says that he has longed(groaned) to gather up his children and take care of them, but, they are unwilling.  The very first line of the quote I started this with asked, if God is willing is he unable?    I would answer that to Epicurus in the affirmative!  I am not sure where this silly notion of God being able to do all things comes from, but it is inaccurate, logically, AND Biblically!

                Before the Christians reading this jump down my throat let me explain.  God by his very nature is limited in a number of ways.  One example that I will draw your attention to is I John 1:5.  It tells us that God is light, in him there can be no darkness at all.  What does this mean?  God, by his very definition of himself, is limited by his inability to be less then what he is.  It is not just that he chooses to be without darkness(the context in I John would indicate darkness as sin), but that by his very nature He is unable to be in communion with darkness!

                You may have heard that famous philosophical question:  Could Jesus heat a burrito so hot he couldn’t pick it up?  While circular reasoning can be “funny”, it is a question based on a false assumption, that God’s definition of being all powerful means  that he can do or be anything.  A short list of things God cannot be:  Less then perfectly loving, less then perfectly just, petty, sinful, in darkness,  etc. 

                So what is it about God’s very nature keeps him from intervening to prevent or correct evil and sin that we observe on a daily basis?  To begin to open up our understanding of that let me direct you to a quote by CS Lewis in his book, The Problem of Pain.

                                We can, perhaps, conceive of a world in which God corrected the results of this abuse of   free will by His creatures at every moment: so that a wooden beam became soft as grass when it    was used as a weapon, and the air refused to obey me if I attempted to set up in it the sound waves that carry lies or insults. But such a world would be one in which wrong actions were impossible, and in which, therefore, freedom of the will would be void; nay, if the principle were carried out to its logical conclusion, evil thoughts would be impossible, for the cerebral matter which we use in thinking would refuse its task when we attempted to frame them.

               

                We can argue all day about why God chose to give us free will, but the bottom line is, he did make us to be creatures of free will.  As desperately as he desires to “gather you under his wings” he will not compromise his creation, or, ultimately, Himself.  He has chosen to give us the ability and intellect to choose Him, or, to not choose Him. Therefore, the evil we observe, AND EXPERIENCE, in this life is in direct correlation to the abuses of this free will by mankind, as individuals, and as a communal whole. 

                So where does hope fit into this picture?  If we are creatures of free will who will inevitably abuse it and cause ourselves, and often others, pain, what is the big idea God has?  Let me direct you back to the passage from Revelation that I quoted earlier.  God has an ultimate, and eternal, destination in mind for His creation.  What we experience now is the results of a broken and sinful world that has perverted God’s intentions.  So what is He waiting for?  Why doesn’t he just make things better right now?  Why is he waiting to “wipe away” my tears?

                Revelation 20:15 records, “ All whose names were not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire”   As I mentioned God cannot force himself over our will and will also not be able to diminish himself by dwelling in sin.  If we are not able to come before him cleansed of our sin, we will be cast into hell for eternity.  This of course would necessitate a completely new blog to deal with the issues of salvation and why salvation is found only through Christ, but for now accept the premise of eternal damnation for the context of understanding the existence of evil that you observe.

                God has given us free will, which has led to evil, which he is currently “not” stopping.  So why has he chosen to ignore and allow evil to continually be perpetuated?  Because of you!  100% without question, he is allowing evil to continue because he passionately and desperately desires to gather YOU under his wings, and you are not letting him…..yet.  The greatest message of love that has ever been conceived is that he is willing to allow evil to continue to persist because he has not yet given up on you. 

                Here is what I mean.  When we look at evil and sin, we most often look at evil and sin outside of ourselves.  It is quite natural to see something like genocide in Darfur, or children born with AIDS because their young mother was raped and wonder where God is in all of this.  We cry out to God to stop this evil, to punish those responsible, to heal the brokenness that we ourselves are broken over.  But we do so with an incomplete understanding of the nature and heart of God. 

                How I like to put it is this:  God is not the tv show “Trading Spaces” he is the tv show “Extreme Home Makeover”.  We ask God to come and sanitize and deal with the sins that bother us.  The things that make us sad.  We say, God I really hate my living room, can you come spruce it up and make it a more comfortable place for me to live?  But that is not who God is, that is not how He operates.  He is Ty Pennington, he is going to come in, take one look at the rotten floor boards, the crumbling foundations, the leaking roof, and he is going to take dynamite to it and bring it to the ground so he can build something brand new and wonderful.

                We say, God come stop genocide, and he says, “Alright, but if I deal with that now, I am going to deal with the fact that you are sleeping with someone you are not married to, I am going to deal with your gossip and slander, your hard heart towards your parents, your spiteful words to your neighbor, your foul language, your internal sexual sin of the heart and mind, your drug addictions, your __________ fill in the blank…..”   And we respond, “hold on one minute there buddy!  I am just talking about REAL bad stuff, you don’t need to get too personal about this” 

                God will not ever do anything part way.  Once he begins the process of making all things new, your sin will be dealt with same as the man raping a child after he has killed their family in a village in Africa.  You cannot expect God to just come along and make YOUR life more palatable while ignoring your own crumbling foundations and leaking roofs.   And what has stayed God’s hand on the dynamite plunger so far?  You.

                Jesus showed us God’s heart, that it is groaning passionately to gather you home.  And because of that he is going to give you every last chance he can, he will keep the door open for you until the last possible second.   As you watch the news and hear terrible things happening in the world, as you hold tightly loved ones as you struggle with the pain of a terrible and unforeseen disease or loss, be comforted in knowing that God is broken and weeping with you.  But he knows the end of the story, that this death destruction is not the end of the story.  And because of that, he is keeping the light on, just a few hours more, just a few moments extra to give everyone every possible chance that there can be to come home. 

                So how do we answer Epicurus?  As long as there is still hope for some, God will stay the execution of Justice because he loves us too much to give up just yet.  He is willing to stop evil, but he is not able to give up on his children.  He is not able to give up on you yet.  There will come a day when all things will be made right, and he will answer to the evil that has gone on under his ever attentive gaze, but for your sake, I pray that it doesn’t come too soon.

Preview Bad Things and God

This week I will be attempting to tackle the subject of why do bad things happen, or, more importantly, why does God allow bad things happen.  I was thinking about this topic for a while, and I was finally prompted to move forward on completing it.  The catalyst for that is thanks to my participation in the officiating of my first funeral as a pastor.  It was a 22 year old man who leaves behind a grieving family to question this tragic situation.  So, stay tuned as I wrestle with an issue that we have each dealt with in some capacity before.

Knowing God's Will

                Knowing the will of God is one of the most difficult things for Christians to discern.  Well, at least it is the one we like to pretend is the most difficult to discern.   Why do I use the word pretend?  Because I believe that we make how to know the will of God into some elaborate and confusing process (in our heads) so that we allow ourselves to be stuck in either indecision or sinful decision.  Before I explain how and why knowing the will of God is “easy”, let me illuminate what I mean by the two “stuck” positions.

                Indecision:

                When we have a difficult decision to be made it is often the hiding spot of those too fearful of being “wrong”.  Instead of exhibiting an adult and mature attitude towards the tough issues in life people choose to run from any risk.  This can be seen in practice through the lives of people who let life “happen” to them.  Either due to laziness or timidity, they never take ownership of their lives, and if it goes bad, well, it wasn’t their fault. 2 Timothy 2:17 tells us that we do not have a spirit of timidity, but one of boldness!  When we allow life to just happen, we are saying too God that He is a liar.  That when he tells you that you have a spirit of boldness through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life you are looking in his face and laughing.  Let us not forget what happened to Sara when she laughed at the Angels statements of her future pregnancy!

                I am not advocating a bull in a china shop attitude when it comes to life decisions.  But you HAVE to make a decision.  But I do like what I like to call “Hulk Hogan Life Philosophical Approaches:  Namely, I would rather ask forgiveness then permission. 

                Sinful Decision: 

                I want to believe what I want to believe.  And so I justify whatever decision I want to make by claiming some strange convoluted theology that defends what I am doing.  Example:  I had a Christian friend in college who had sex with every girlfriend he had because he just KNEW that it was God’s will that he was going to marry this girl.  After like 3-4 of them I began to think he might not know God’s will for his life as well as he was claiming…….

                With all of that being said let me address what I would contend is the 2 step surefire way to knowing God’s will for your life. 

                One:  The Bible.  Ok, so no brainer right.  But allow me to clarify this.  First, the wrong way you can take that:  Either looking for some exact word for word statement on how you should handle a specific situation, or, literally opening the bible and reading the first thing you come upon and considering that an answer(people seriously do that….sigh)

                In the first example, it is obvious that the bible is “strangely” silent on whether or not you should sell crystal meth to children.  But obviously you cannot just assume it is ok to do something just because there is not a specific injunction pertaining to that issue in the bible, or, more specifically, because Jesus himself did not speak against it.  When you are deeply familiar with the Word of God you are able to clearly understand that there is an answer to this issue, whether or not it spells it out exactly. 

                Illustrative Example:  My wife does not need to tell me that she would hate a Jean Claude Van Damme film for our date night.  Though she has NEVER said she doesn’t like his movies, because of my intimate familiarity with who she is, I have no excuse to bring home “Time Cop” tonight instead of “Leap Year”(which is another movie she has never mentioned but I guarantee she would like it) And for the second example, opening up the bible and pointing at something, just stop, stop being stupid.

                As we grow in our familiarity with the real and living God as He reveals Himself through His Word, it becomes more and more natural for us to naturally incline towards being shaped and defined by who He is, not who we want Him to be.  If you claim you want to know God’s will better but resist developing an intimate and personal relationship through the regular immersion into His word, then you are a liar and actually are not that interested in knowing His will.  You just want a lazy mans religion, that you can just hear some trumpet blow overhead and everything is answered for you and wrapped up in a nice bow that requires no effort or thought on your part.

                The second step we need to take to discern God’s will in our lives is community.  We are told two things that reinforce this view.  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that above all things the heart is deceitful.  Our own individualized thoughts are highly deceptive.  That is due to our self-centered sin nature.  Like my Christian friend with multiple sex partners, he WANTS it to be God’s will because he is a horny kid who is willing to believe anything that gives him what he wants.  And then Matthew 18:20 tells us that where two or more are gathered in HIS name, HE IS THERE also. 

                With these two biblical truths we can see that it is people outside of our personal emotional position who themselves are rooted in God’s truth that will be able to speak clear truth to us about a given situation.  How many times have you listened to a friend talk to you about something that was going on and you felt flabbergasted about how obtuse they were being?  From your perspective the answer was so simple.  As your friend tells you that his girlfriend hired a hit man to kill him, but he isn’t sure if he should break up with her or not because he loves her soooo much, you just sit there scratching your head because it is so obvious. 

                We constantly are doing that when we try to discern the will of God.  When we leave ourselves to process the decision singularly and internally, we are setting ourselves up for failure.  We NEED each other.  If you do not have a community of believers who are deeply rooted in the word of God you will always struggle with discerning God’s will for your life. 

                I know that the topic, the will of God is a huge one with many possible facets.  But I think once you remove all the theology and biblical exegesis, it comes down to this:  I need to learn how to hear God speak clearly in my life!