The God Who Speaks - Sept. 2007

Dear friends of God (for that is what you are):

Before I forget, in addition to this newsletter, take note that I've added two new articles on www.clarion-journal.ca. One is entitled, "Cynic or Prophet? What's the Difference?" Another article (4th piece down the page) is a tribute for my dad on his 70th birthday. Now to business...

After taking August off from blogging / newsletters, I've returned and am preparing for the fall schedule. I hope your summer went well... mine was rich, but not as restful as I like. I did a couple of seminars in England that allowed me to take the family there. Wonderful! I did a little mountain-climbing in the Rockies as well--my first time on a harness, crossing glacier fields on the way to the peaks of the Jupiter range. We also enjoyed some time in Westbank with friends.

Today, I have a few suggestions re: re-tuning our ears to hear God's voice... something that we need to be sure that we don't neglect through familiarity.

First, do you ever feel like you're fighting a losing battle with wandering thoughts? It's one thing to meander around in day-dreams with the Lord, but I'm talking about getting completely side-tracked by spiritual ADD (attention deficit disorder). For me, it has been rather severe of late and I realized I needed to address it when I found myself suffering increased anxiety. It's as if we create ruts in our mind that draw us away from the place of peace. What to do?

Here's what I'm doing with it: I have taken to digging new mental ruts that lead me back into the Lord's peace. Specifically, I've memorized (again) the words of Isaiah, "He will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is fixed on God, because he trusts in Him." I repeat that Scripture, using it as a mental shovel to re-direct my path back to focused attention on the Lord. A simple "mantra," but I'm finding it unusually effective... I actually picture burrowing my way past my anxious thoughts back into the throne room of God.

The other exercise that I've used many times this summer with every group that I meet is the following set of questions (I probably shared it before, but here goes):

1. Lord, what image of God do you want me to focus on this fall? Why that image? (There are so many! From Father to Shepherd to King to Saviour to Rock to Fortress and so on). Autumn is a new season and may require that we meditate on a particular facet of God's character.

2. Lord, what false images of God do I carry that hinder my friendship with you? (The most common I've heard over recent months is "God the punisher"). Lord, where did I first pick up that false image? True Lord Jesus, would you come remove and replace that false image with yourself? Watch where He takes you and what He does with it.

God is often not the way we've imaged / imagined Him. We need to continually renew our minds to cleanse them of projections of God that come from our own brokenness. It's my sense that some of this relates to our theology of the atonement. For those interested in the meaning of the Cross, I'll recommend our newly arrived book, "Stricken by God?" (edited by me ... 524 pages, 20 authors). You can order it from www.bradjersak.com. It's something that I think your pastors, elders and teachers might especially appreciate (both female -- I mistakenly reduced all pastors to 'he' in my last newsletter. I apologize.).

If these newsletters continue to be of help, please consider inviting others to sign in at my homepage.

blessings to you,

Brad Jersak