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| Living By Sight |
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I had two titles to this message, and besides the one that is evident - I want people to tune-in to the one that is not evident. The second title to this message is called "Listening to the Sound."
Broadening this message out slightly before I hone-in to what this message is all about, in a world full of consumerism, people have been driven by what they see, what they want instead of what they need. Since around August of last year, the credit crunch has arrived - and people have been cutting back - and instead of buying what they want, they are now focusing on what they need. Companies are shedding jobs, the housing market is falling through the floor, and people are finding out pretty rapid that the house they brought last year at one price - is not worth the same price this year, and its predicted to continue. In a world full of consumerism, even in American by two well-known mortgage lenders that hold 50% of the market, if something doesn't happen drastically, its about to go bust. The same thing happened here in the UK when a certain mortgage lender was going belly-up, and investors (people with bank accounts etc) were withdrawing their money left, right and centre because they began listening to the sound and marrying-up what is seen by what they were hearing with their natural senses. So now I'm about to hone-in to listening to the sound, and by that - I don't mean with your natural senses. Although they play a part in it, its not the full part.
I woke up this morning, stuck the kettle on for a cuppa, opened the back door to let the dog have his mad half hour and switched the TV on to catch up with the latest news. Now I'm not what you call an avid sports fan, and when it comes to football - forget it! But something caught my attention - which is basically where this message has developed from, and it centred on a group of people playing football in a playing field.
First of all the camera focused on a group of people playing football. Then the sports presenter started saying stuff. Part of what he said focused on the natural senses and what people see. Then he asked a question. What would you do if you only saw this? When he said that, the screen went blank. You see, all these football players were blind, and the only people that could see - were the goalkeepers.
What enabled these football players to play football was the sound of the ball-bearings in the football. When the sports presenter put on a blindfold that totally blocked out his vision, didn't matter where the football was - he couldn't kick it because he couldn't see it. So the blind football coach had to teach him to focus on the sound of the ball-bearings in the football, and not on the football itself. What amused me even more, with the football only inches away from the sports presenter - he totally missed it. And there on the playing field were a bunch of people who were totally blind - playing football and scoring goals - and they ran rings round him. And here's the other thing. Beside playing football and coaching people who are blind on how to play football, this man is married with children and holds down a full-time job in an office - and he sits in front of a computer tapping the keyboard. His manager said that he's an absolute inspiration to others. Why? Because he concentrates on what he can do - rather than what he can't do. And he's done it in such a way that's he's perfected it. Now let me go deeper into this message.
We all have something that we can use, but not many have perfected it. I jokingly say from time to time that all my sisters have a built-in radar system, and I can always tell when they're onto something, because their eyes dart about all over the place like homing beacons, and they don't have to communicate a word to know what the other is thinking. They have perfected it so much that I call it an in-built "know-er", and it keeps on going until it locks onto something. And when that happens, I'm busted! In other words, the game is up. And I must confess, there's some things I haven't fathomed out about women, but beings I'm the only man in my clan, that's one thing I have found out. So going deeper into this message even more, I'm going to now start asking some questions. Next paragraph.
Have you ever gone along with something knowing its wrong? Somebody comes up to you and starts talking, and next minute you sign your life away because they've persuaded you differently. But all the time that in-built know-er is shouting out, don't do it! It maybe days down the line, weeks or even months down the line, then suddenly it dawns on us if we traced it back to where it came from, we shouldn't have done it in the first place, and that we should have listened to that part of us that - although not having a voice, shouts at us all the time - but we ignore it.
Wisdom is a strange breed, because most people would think of it as head knowledge rather than heart knowledge. It is something that people think they need to study rather than practice. And for risk of sounding "religious" - here's a first scripture to focus on.
Proverbs 1:20:27 [NIV]. Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateway of the city she makes her speech:
How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
But you have since rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you.
Its hard isn't it to listen to wisdom when everywhere around you is noisy. It blocks our thought pattern, the way we go about stuff, the way we act and react towards things, because there's so many voices going off that we don't listen to, that we neglect the one we're supposed to listen to. It can even block our thought pattern and relationship with God. Now wasn't that a shock when I wrote that? But all the time, whether its wisdom or God, both are saying "listen to me." And the thing about it is, we only start listening when we're either up to our neck in it - or completely consumed by it. Only then do we start listening. So let me start closing this message.
Everyone of us has an in-built know-er. Call it faith, intuition or foresight. It is something that was built into us when God created us. But for a long time now - people have been trying to dismantle it by going along with the notion of what is seen rather than what is not seen. Suddenly, without warning, she (wisdom) is starting to laugh in some people's faces. Not only is she laughing in people's faces, she's also watching them fall flat on their faces. People have brought things knowing they couldn't afford it. They've borrowed when they knew they couldn't pay back. And the thing about it is, when consumerism is involved, people have listened to other people in the knowledge they couldn't afford it. But hey-ho, now the credit crunch has arrived - everybody without exception is feeling the pinch. And to add salt into an ever-festering wound, every-day living expenses are shooting up like gas and electric, fuel and food prices etc. and now people are saying to themselves, we can't afford it anymore. In a land of plenty - when people should have been saving up instead of spending up - is fast becoming like a desert. Now let me really hone-in on this message before closing it off.
The rest of Proverbs 1:27 venturing into 28. When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me."
Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD... Read on further to gain the full insight of this message to verse 33 [NIV].
Now to close off this message.
In 2 Corinthians 4:18 [NIV] it states: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
In 2 Corinthians 5:7 it states: We live by faith, not by sight.
If I were to blend those two scriptures together, its talking about our in-built know-er. And if I were to go back to those football players who were blind, although they couldn't see the ball, they could hear it. The same goes for wisdom. Because although faith has an active part in our lives and people show it every day in one form or another, just like wisdom, the only time it really shoots out is when our back is against the wall. So to finalise this message. Although living by sight, shouldn't we start listening to the sound? Wisdom, although crying out all over the place - doesn't make a sound. Seems ironic how a blind man had to teach a sighted man how to play football. Here ends my message.
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Tom |
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July 18, 2008 at 7:04am |
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And what a worthy message it is Stevie !
How many times did we all fall when we first started walking? Because everyone else was walking, we did not give up trying "to perfect" the art, because we knew it could be done.
We need Godly Men and Women to share their victories of when they heeded, the voice of Wisdom, and to hear the times when they did not heed the warnings, and ended up in a heap of trouble. The word of their testimony can help others learn, if they are willing to share.
I remember when "the warning" was ringing in my Spirit when I was bidding a painting job.
I went ahead and started the job despite the warnings of not to take the job.
It ended when I realized the customer expected a "silk purse" job for a "sows ear" price.
Not that I was cheating Him in anyway, but after the fact, He wanted more than I contracted with Him to do.
It ended with me walking off the job before I got further into a mess when I realized He was not going to pay anything to me until I was willing to do the "extra work" not in the contract.
I sent Him two bills, both returned unopened . I did not like the anger that would well up in me when I thought about the mess, (Wisdom did try to warn me) so I sent him a letter forgiving him of the debt. He returned it, unopened, thereby not receiving the forgiveness available to him. I felt better about it all, and did not go hungry. He later fell from a ladder and went to the Hospital with a broken arm. The amount of the bill was probably what he owed me, but I don't know.
Wisdom will give us practice to know Her voice if we ask, and that's how we perfect it, by working it over and over again, and seeing the results.
Thanks for a good blog Stevie, I hope others will share also! |
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| Thanks Tom for what you've said. I too have dropped clangers in my time which lead to a lot of heartache. Over the years, although Wisdom was there all the time, I've learned to listen to it more intensely than ever before. I won't say I've perfected it, but if it doesn't settle right within my spirit, I don't do it. The number of times I've wanted to do something - but backed off at the last minute I cannot calculate. And believe it or not, this message all came about by watching a sports presenter missing the ball when it was right in front of him all the time. Wisdom is also there all the time, but we keep on missing it. |
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