Listening

4/15/2006

Luke 16:

“20: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21: And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22: And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23: And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24: And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25: But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26: And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27: Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29: Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30: And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31: And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

God speaks to us in many different ways.  We wake up in the morning and the conversation starts.  We exercise.  During certain moments, perhaps only a second or two, the spirit is quiet and one can almost hear Him speaking.  It is those quiet times, that the conversation seems so clear.  In the Old Testament, the conversation seems to come with lightning and thunder and catastrophe.  The whole world reverberates with his vibrations.

My experience is so different. It is those quiet moments where he seems so close. Perhaps it is my imagination, but I seem to hear his voice in the quietness of my soul.   Perhaps that is the New Testament way.

God’s Revelation starts with our personal experience. No words, no written documents, no lawyers we face God alone with our experience. We try to make sense of it all.  Time and time again he teaches through the parables of the Gospels to open our eyes and listen.

The most basic revelation is experience.  Everything is tested by our experience.  We validate our models by consistency with our experience.  The experience is common to all and we must start there.

Experience has at least four components.

            1. Intellectual
            2..Emotional
            3. Physical
            3. Social
            4. Spiritual

The first three are straightforward. Spiritual is not so clear.  For many of us there is an aspect of experience that seems far beyond the intellect, or our emotions and certainly social doesn’t fit.  It is a connection with the beyond.  It is that connection that seems to come through in quiet times.  One could argue it is the emotion connected with quiet times. 

Let us assume this is the connection with God or the Spiritual side of things.  Later as we delve into things, this side of us may come clearer.

Experience is result of each person’s personal interaction with the outside.  Dreams and thnking perhaps are not so directly involved with the outside, but one can argue that all of these are the result of outside interactions.  For now, we will consider the experience is this interaction and that, during our waking times, we are experiencing 100 percent of the time.

God speaks to us through our experience.  From that point of view, it is an useful exercise to look at our experiences and determine the components of each experience.  It is useful because it gives us a perspective on how we communicate with God and vice versa.

For Example:

Walking
Intellectual ----- 10%
Emotional ------ 20%
Physical --------  50%
Social -----------   5%
Spiritual --------   15%

8:00 Worship Service
Intellectual --------

Revelations:

Experience

History

Science

Worship

Art

Music

Mathematics

Games

Literature

The Model

Principle of Consistency

Objective:

--- to analyze each experience in terms of its components and try to identify those activities which seem to bring us closer to God.

--- to be able to classify the type of revelation and be able to