AssemblyBoard

See for yourself!

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=efe990f936dde0d9c98c (http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=efe990f936dde0d9c98c)

Point taken:  Obey God for God has our best interests in mind.  However . . .

I am yet to get a clear, complete-sentence, unambiguous hearing of the voice God that says something like "get rid of your new blender". 

The question in my mind is not, "would I get rid of my favorite blender if God told me to?"  Of course I would.  Rather, my question would be "if I had a thought in my head that said 'get rid of your blender' how would I know this thought was really from God"?

If the wife really heard the undenyable voice of God, the blender would immediately be in the trash. 

However, this shows the problem when we Christians hold onto the notion that every thought that floats into our head might be God speaking.  No one is really sure until it is too late.

I understand that problem.  God speaks to me quite frequently.  Unfortunately, so do other spiritual entities masquerading as God.  It can also be my own thoughts.  What to do?  God has helpfully provided me a husband with the spiritual gift of discerning the messages I get so we can figure out what's from God and what's not.  We also find out whether or not it's God, of course, based on whether or not it comes true (if it's prophecy).  My husband doesn't like to interpret prophecy and usually doesn't, because we have discovered that, like in the Bible, prophecy very often is fulfilled in ways WE don't expect or anticipate.  I'll give you an example.  God gave me a prophecy that my husband "had not got the job, that the job he was in now was the best one for him and for me".  Well, my husband DID get the job.  Had we heard from God?  My husband then interpreted the prophecy thusly:  he had applied for two jobs.  He didn't get the one, but he did get the other.  Furthermore, I received the prophecy early Monday morning, and that's when HR received his new job posting.  So, he DID in fact have "the job he was in now" AT the time the prophecy was given, making it true.  But there's NO way we could have anticipated that ahead of time! 

Anyhow, it helps to have a live-in discerner.  :)

Amy,

Say, how do you folks do on lottery numbers?

Tom maddux

Um, let's see...God says that the winning lottery numbers are 14 22 71 30 and 22.

Unfortunately, He didn't say WHICH lottery.  Oh well.   ;D

This reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon that came out in the 1960’s where Charlie Brown said to Violet, “Thanks for the Valentine cards!”  Violet replied, “I didn’t give you any Valentine cards, Charlie Brown.”

Charlie Brown replied, “Don’t you know sarcasm when you hear it?”

The problem I see with this whole spiritual message from God realm is that folks seem to believe that God speaks in these type of vague, cryptic clues that no one really gets right and no one is really sure if it is the voice of God yet we are somehow expected to obey lest we be fried by the blender.  In these circles, you rarely here God say anything tangible such as, “you will not get this job; you will get that one so plan to move to Texas.”   This is the crux of the lottery number remark.

Even as the movie illustrated, the couple really wasn’t sure that the blender message was the voice of God or some static on the frontal lobe.   If they know God had indeed spoken, the blender would have been in the trash.  The fact is, we never really know until we are fried so what is the point of the prophecy?

This kind of thinking, in my opinion, presents a God who is a poor communicator (thus He is inept) yet he expects us to do what he says (thus He is unreasonable). 

Do I ever get still-small-voices?  Of course I do.  I get my best thoughts after I exercised and the blood has adequately flowed through the brain.  Sometimes I will get in my head an entire essay I would like to write just like the author of Harry Potter says she got the idea of the novel fully formed while riding in a train.  But, then I think about the thoughts that popped into my head for a day or two and even talk to someone else.  If the idea seems worthy, I then may act upon it.  If, after a day or two, it seems silly, I discard it.  I never take anything that falls into my head as the “voice of God”.  I always test my random thoughts through some objective means.

If  “throw out the blender” was to pop into my head very strongly, here is what I would do.  I would probably do a Google search to see if anything was written about the blender.  I might even ask a friend how they liked their blender and if they had any problems.  If nothing came up in the objective realm, I would discard the subjective thought as an idle blip. 

I do believe God is indeed actively working in His creation (we’re not Deists after all) and I believe God Providentially guides His people.  However, understanding God’s voice is moving away from thinking about “me and my little walk with the Lord and God wants to whisper to my little ‘ol heart because I’m so special.”  Rather, we recognize that the voice of God has to do with the sweeping story God began in Creation, worked through the nation Israel, culminated in Christ and will ultimately lead to Christ’s return.  As we focus on this “larger story” we find that our little life and concerns are connected to something much greater than what job we have or what model blender we use.

But I fear we Christians often do not want to do the intellectual work to grasp the significance of this larger story.  Rather, we take a page from the Gnostics who preferred subjective mystery messages in order to give their life meaning.

Now that was a good answer!

Tom

Actually, I want to explain WHY I posted that link the first place.  It's actually satire.  The tags for it at Godtube.com include, "funny, humor" if there's any doubt about what the makers of the video meant by it.

I thought it deliciously skewered everything the Assembly held dear and that's why I shared it.  I probably should have made that more clear when I posted the link.

Well, I guess I fell for that one.  There were a few comments on the site where folks seemed to think it was a serious "God message".

Thanks,

-Dave

Blenders may be evil. Here's another fact I really did not realize.  I wonder why the astronauts did
not see these people?:

Oliver B. Huntington - "As far back as 1837 Joseph Smith said the moon was inhabited. He described the men as averaging near six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style.  In my patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the Prophet, in Kirtland, 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and — to the inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can now behold with your eyes.  The first two promises have been fulfilled, and the latter may be verified."  Young Woman's Journal, vol. 3, p. 263-264 (1892)

I don't think Oliver B. Huntington was one of the astronauts, since he lived circa 1892, but apparently he preached the Mormon Gospel to people on the moon, as he said it may be "verified"(perhaps he meant it was yet to happen--but since Joseph Smith prophesied it, it must have come to pass). Perhaps due to his preaching there are Mormons on the Moon now. Did the astronauts come across any bicycle tracks while they were up there? I didn't see any in the photographs, but perhaps the Moon Mormons ride there bikes elsewhere on the moon, or have a different mode of transportation--in their case they dress like Quakers, but most likely still have name-tags.