Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“You know that when you were Gentiles, you were led astray to voiceless idols”
Paul, in 1Corinthians 12:2
I think it disgusted my Greek professor when I told him that Jesus had taught me a certain thing. We were alone, a young seminary student and the aged Doctor of Theology, sitting together on his couch in his seminary office. He was examining me privately concerning the message I had delivered to him and the forty Baptist ministers in his “New Testament Exposition” class. He asked me, with no little sarcasm, “So you think that you’ve had an experience in which God has revealed something to you?” What could I say but “Yes, sir”? It wasn’t my doing. God had revealed truth to me, and I couldn’t take credit for what I had passed on to him and to my fellow students. All I could do was admit to what God had done to me (“confess Christ”, to use biblical language).
What in particular Jesus had taught me is unimportant here. The point is that God speaks. He speaks to man through nature (Rom. 2:19; Ps. 19:1); He speaks to man through dreams (e. g. Joseph, Daniel, etc.); He even speaks to man through animals if He chooses to do so (Num 22); He has certainly spoken to man through men, women, and angels; and He speaks directly to man through the Spirit (as he had done in this case), and sometimes He speaks to man audibly. I have heard God’s voice out of heaven. I know that He speaks. The biblical record is clear and available to anyone who really wants to know, and there are plenty of present day testimonies that can be heard from God’s children to whom He has spoken and still speaks. The God of the Bible has always spoken to man, and still does. I am fully persuaded that if your god does not speak to you, then you should get another God because the one you have is the wrong one.
Before they came to the true God, Paul reminded the Corinthian saints, they worshiped dumb idols (1Cor. 12:1-3). Now, they served the living God who speaks.
Those who have never heard from God may think it is strange for God’s children to testify to “an experience with God in which God has taught them something.” The world may reject and mock their confession of what Christ has done and is doing for them. But it is a sweet reality nonetheless. And thank God for it! If we didn’t have our heavenly father speaking to us, by one means or another, how would we ever find our way home through this dark world?
When we were of the world, we, too, were “without God and without hope”, but He is with us now, “a very present help in time of trouble”. Listen for His voice; look for His voice; be still and feel for His voice. He is speaking, always speaking. Sometimes loud and clear, sometimes soft and quiet, but every moment He is speaking comfort and exhortation to every one of His precious children on earth. Listen for it. The world may scoff and turn away in unbelief, but you be thankful, and listen. He is showing you His secret pathway to happiness and home.