Our Response

Josh has been working with this kind of view!

God built into a portion of our brains a function that constantly filters out unimportant information and focuses on what is meaningful to us. It's called the Reticular Activating System, RAS, this is how it works:

1. Positive focusing.

2. Negative filtering.

3. Individual perceiving.

Once our minds have decided something is important-like the crying of a baby-the RAS will bring it to your attention every time. I find this fascinating, because I have noticed that since having children I can tune out everything.........but still manage to wake up at the slightest whimper from my children. I don't even HEAR the blaring of Josh's alarm clock, but I can hear MINE, if I set it. I noticed the other day how our programming is so different for all of us. I pointed out the sound of a train the other day, and I asked Josh if it ever bothers him. We have lived in this house for over a year, and that was the FIRST time he even knew the train was close enough to hear. WHY could I hear it? Do I have an attachment to trains, since my father worked for the railroad for 40 years?


I have been searching to hear more of God. You know, that "still small voice." Sometimes I have even "beat myself up" thinking that I cannot hear Him. But I am now wondering if I have been hearing Him for longer than I realized, that His voice has become a part of my RAS? Do I hear His promptings and not even realize? Have I made hearing His voice vital to my daily life? Have I filtered out the negative worldly distractions? Of course, there is always more hearing to be done......so, I am not saying that I am done learning.


But, my thought was this........our RAS records everything and will concentrate our attention on what we have previously programmed to be important. I can thank my mother for giving credit to God so many times for even the little things, so have I just grown up knowing that God speaks ALWAYS?


For example, the other day I was driving home from church in Josh's car. It was about 9 pm, and I really felt like I should not go my "normal way home." I decided to take the highway, not the back roads. I was about 4 miles from home, when the car died. My cell phone was dead. I remember being panicked, and I thanked God for the prompting to NOT go the back roads. However, I didn't FEEL like God was TELLING me to go the highway, when I went??? I want to KNOW that it's HIM....and then obey.


I realize I am just rambling, but I know that the few who read this blog will have some insight for me. PLEASE, I need your thoughts!

I don't want to lose my sensitivity to those things that I know are valuable. I have no doubt that God's voice is valuable. Does hearing God's voice just become a part of you? Am I missing something by not knowing BEFOREhand that it's Him?


Do you learn to just filter out the negative so much, that you only hear the positive? Do you become so sensitive to His Word and Spirit that you KNOW when it's not Him?


Staying positive about hearing God will certainly allow you to hear more and more of His voice. I realize the significance of RAS now more than ever. I can go outside and see the beauty of the mountains, and I never grow weary of their magnificence. Some of my Colorado natives have grown complacent.....

I do know my heart's cry:

MAY I ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE RESPONSE TO THE THINGS OF GOD, so THAT I CAN SEE and HEAR MORE.

Gasp or Yawn?

Previously, I mentioned being lukewarm; I think it would be fair to imply that a yawn would be considered a half-hearted response to God's Word and His Laws.

Both a yawn and a gasp are contagious. A gasp brings an excitement that makes people very curious as to what brought the reaction. A yawn is also contagious; did you yawn when you saw the picture?

The choice is ours. The proper grasp of God's Word and WHO HE IS will bring the appropriate grasp. But what brought on this friendship-with-the-world and enemy of God mindset, that causes a wrong response?

Personally, I believe its starting point is when we lose the fear of the LORD, and we lose our ability to gasp at what God gasps at, which causes us to think and behave like “fools.” Do we yawn when God gasps?

The fear of the LORD causes us to gasp at sin and stay at war with sin and the world, while yawning at sin causes us to think and act as fools. A fool thinks he can live at peace with sin and make friends with the world.

DEFINTION OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD:

A grasp of the infinite greatness, majestic holiness, unmerited favor, and sure judgment of God, so firm and real and strong as to demand a response of true humility, awe, reverence, worship, trembling, repentance, trust, hatred of evil and love of obedience.

Unthankfulness in you or your children…yawn or gasp?

Lust for another women’s body…yawn or gasp?

Overeating consistently…yawn or gasp?

The truth that our biblical needs are food and clothing…yawn or gasp?

The truth that there are a 100 billion galaxies just like ours in the universe, each one containing 100 billion stars and God named them all…yawn or gasp?

The truth that God is perfect in holiness and there is no darkness in Him at all…not one tiny bit…yawn or gasp?

The fact that the Righteous, all-knowing, all-seeing Judge is standing right at the door…yawn of gasp?

When we hear of a believing woman who blames her discouragement on the pastor’s teachings instead of examining her own life and asking her husband to shepherd her…yawn or gasp?

When we hear of leaders in a Christian church who allow a blameless man’s reputation to be dragged through the mud…yawn or gasp?

Or what about church leaders who label as “faithful” holding tightly to a church name, church building, and church programs and call it faithfulness to Christ…yawn or gasp?

Oh, how desperately we need to look at these things and ask ourselves if we are in unity with God about what He yawns and gasps at. Do you have the fear of the LORD? What attitudes and action cause you to gasp? Which cause you to yawn?

Lukewarm

The definition of lukewarm according the the Merriam Webster dictionary is 1 : moderately warm : tepid 2 : lacking conviction : halfhearted.

Revelation 3:16 (The Message) I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, 'I'm rich, I've got it made, I need nothing from anyone,' oblivious that in fact you're a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless.

Wow! I sometimes get to pondering what the significance of things commanded to us through Scripture.........surprise, surprise! Aren't we supposed to do that all the time?

Anyway, I was thinking about this "lukewarm" thought. Am I? What does it REALLY mean to have a lukewarm life?

Here are a few questions that might get you thinking about if you are in danger of being lukewarm:

Do cares and worries of this life dominate most of your thoughts and conversations?
Do you practice sin on a regular basis?
Do you "love" the things of this world more than God Himself?
Are you too busy for Jesus? What are your priorities?
Do you use God's name in vain? ('Oh My God, OMG)
Do you fail to pray earnestly & pray for the lost who will spend eternity in hell?
Do you fail to preach the gospel on a regular basis? OR do you hinder others?
Are you indifferent about your sin? What is your attitude?
Do you seek after worldly wealth & fame vs seeking first the Kingdom of God?
Do you fail to obey Jesus, and God's Word consistently?


Some of these are tough to answer, because I, of course, don't want to get the wrong answer. But it is good to examine my heart.

The part that got me thinking about this was the life of Jesus. Jesus lived His life the way we should be living ours. Think of the people He affected in His life: did he get a lukewarm response? I was thinking about my life.......do I invoke a lukewarm response in others? Is the WORD that I proclaim causing a lukewarm reaction? Jesus' followers either loved him enough to give up everything (even to the point of dying for Him) or they hated Him enough to want Him dead!!!

Is God's message, through me, causing a lukewarm reaction in others?