Are you listening?

Have you ever noticed how much louder people speak when they are wearing headphones?  We are living in the world of the podcast and headphones have actually become a fashion accessory!  The problem with listening to loud music (whatever your taste) through headphones is that you are cut off from what is going on around you.  Whenever I walk into a music store my kids make a b-line to the headphones on the wall and I always get a laugh out of the fact that I can hear them talking loudly to each other from the other side of the store. See, the problem is, you have to speak louder to compensate because what you have chosen to listen to is affecting your ability to hear anything else. This is why I gave up listening to my ipod whilst riding my pushbike; I could choose some really enjoyable music but what I really need to hear is what is going on around me.  You might not spend a lot of time listening to music but we all select what we will hear.  What we choose to listen to affects what else we will be able to hear.Jesus often said these words… “He who has ears, let Him hear!”  See Jesus understood that listening is an active choice, not simply an automatic response. So my question to you today is… How loudly would God have to speak to get your attention?   Is it possible that He has been speaking but you haven’t been listening?

It’s the little things

Little things can really make a difference. Little things can have a huge impact.

A small match can kindle a fire that will destroy hundreds of homes…a small crack in the fuselage of a plane can render it unfit to fly…a small hole in a bucket is all you need to loose what you are carrying. A small person can impact the world for good (Mother Teresa) or for evil (Adolf Hitler). Small does not necessarily mean insignificant.

We have to be careful to control the small things which have the potential to cause harm. Our tongue is a small thing, and yet very dangerous. The words you speak can bring joy, encouragement and love or else they can bring sorrow, judgement and pain. This little thing that waggles about in our heads is quite a worry. If you can control your tongue then you are strong indeed; your friends and family will feel safe around you. But if you tend to fly off at the mouth then don’t be surprised if people are hesitant to share deeply and meaningfully with you!

When we speak harshly or when we enter into gossip we are using our tongue in a way that can cause irreparable damage and we need to be careful. Harsh words or gossip tend to feel great whilst they are being exchanged but afterwards there is nothing but destruction.

Speaking of the tongue James says …“it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:8

Let’s guard our hearts and hold our tongues!

i wl B w8ng 4 U @HrsB CU@5 outsd MCDs

People love sending text messages and they love receiving them, it has become one of the most common forms of communication. But with the advent of SMS a whole new language has emerged that we are all trying to get our heads around.

You see, sending an SMS has become quite an art form, where people try to communicate a complex message with as few keystrokes as possible. This is, of course, all part of the game. The Melbourne Age reported that eight out of 12 secondary schools said that students were increasingly using SMS-style English in their class assignments. For instance, some students now spell the word ‘before’ as ‘b4’, ‘night’ as ‘nite’, ‘great’ as ‘gr8’ and ‘with’ as ‘wif’.

We can complain as loudly and as long as we like about the change and degradation of our language but the fact is that in the future we will not know what people are writing about unless we seek to understand them. With a little effort we can keep in touch.

One of the major problems I observe is that people are out of touch, not just with each other, but with God. The way He speaks and expresses Himself has become foreign and His important messages seem like the most garbled SMS.

The Lord has a lot that He wants to say to you. RU redd?

“Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech.”

Isaiah 28:23

Negativity

It is amazing how a single splinter can spoil your whole day. Even though it is small and apparently insignificant it makes a lasting impression and no comfort is found until the offending item is removed. Negative things are like that. It seems that a negative thought or a negative word will stay with you throughout the whole day. It is so easy to get stuck on a “not so merry-go-round” as we replay the problems, the mistakes or the pain others have caused us. A “negative” is about having something taken away, and we all suffer them from time to time. Jesus said that there would be negatives in our lives. “The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The devil is the ultimate minus sign. “-” He seeks to remove every good thing from you; he is out to take away every part of your life but Jesus is different…He is the plus sign “+” The Bible shows us that Jesus suffered the loss of everything He had, so that He could give us life. His death on the cross was the definitive action which guarantees the possibility of life for each of us. It is so easy to focus on the splinter; the negatives which take away from our lives, but I encourage you to look again at the possibility of the positive which can be found in Jesus Christ. Jesus adds value to life!