Dave spoke tonight from John 1:1-14, a familiar passage which reminds us nonetheless of God’s ongoing desire to communicate with us through words (and the Word). Words are the means by which thoughts are communicated and the Bible reminds us that God is forever speaking. In creation, God spoke and it came to be (see Ps 33:6,9, Heb 11:3) — the ‘said’ produced the ‘so’. When God speaks, things happen; as Jesus commented, His words were spirit and life (John 6:63).
The fact that God speaks is amazing, but so often, we are unwilling to listen. The true light has come into the world through Jesus, but we often prefer darkness (see Jn 1:9). God’s invisible qualities are made known to us (Rom 1:20), but we don’t always hear Him speaking clearly. When God spoke at Jesus’s baptism, many heard this as ‘thunder’; we often hide from God’s voice because it challenges and changes us.
Not only does God speak, however, but He also listens. He turns His ear towards us (Ps 116:1-2); He listens to our prayers. (Ps 34:6, Ps 66:19). It is astonishing to think that the Holy One, the Creator of the universe, the Supreme Being actually listens not only to the world and the church but to each one of us as individuals. He is a loving Father who will never abandon or forsake us. He has spoken in the past (Heb 1:1-3), continues to speak in the present and will also speak in the future. Our problem if we cannot hear God talking to us is that we are not really listening. We need to make the time and space to listen to God; nothing is more important.
