He Speaks to me Everywhere

Chuck Colson and TM Moore have started a Worldview Center with tons of resources. One of the resources is that TM writes a daily, practical study that I have been listening to everyday. It is short and only takes a minute or two. Today his study was one I have tried to teach my students, when I was teaching. I would say, "God speaks every where in everything. You can see Him in every thing. You have to learn the Word, then train yourself to see it." I gave them a challenge then to say anything, and I would try to see how it would show me something of God. Classical education speaks of this training as an integrated approach to learning. The study from Viewpoint this morning was something I wish I could have articulated as well as TM Moore did. Take just a few minutes to read this, and also, go to their new web site. It is a gem.

http://www.colsoncenter.org/wfp-home

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 1:13

Solomon was wise because he understood that everything on earth has its proper place in the divine scheme of things – “under the heavens”, as he put it. Everything we see or hear, every experience and fact of creation, all of it has a place in the divine economy (Eccl. 3:1-8). And God has put eternity in our hearts – the ability to peer past mere temporal reality into the eternal counsels of God – so that we can know Him and His world, using the mind of Christ, if only imperfectly (1 Cor. 2:16; Eccl. 3:11). As we press ahead in our work of creational theology we will want to integrate our observations with the Scriptural associations they suggest. Here we will make bold to offer some concise statement concerning the glory of God which we have discerned, revealed in the things He has made.

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The activity of integration involves trying to put what we have observed in creation and what we know from the Scriptures into our own words, that, by doing so, we make a statement concerning what God has spoken to us about the things we have seen. Such conclusions are not to be considered normative, that is, on the same level of Scripture. Rather, they give us ways of heightening our awareness of God, enhancing our understanding of Him, deepening our experience of Him, and reflecting on His presence with us in more personal and meaningful ways. Our world may, in many ways, seem out of sorts and wrong – not what God would want it to be. But we may reflect from such observations that “This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done…” God is still bringing His redemptive work to His creation as we, His people, take up the good works for which He has redeemed us in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:19-21; Eph. 2:10). By integrating your observations with the Scriptural associations you identify, you create a means of noting and training yourself to respond to the “voice” of God as He speaks to you everywhere. That passing thunderstorm over the sun-burnt grass says, “I will never fail you nor forsake you; wait on me, and do not despair.” The reliability of your office computer and the fruitful work it allows you to produce may speak of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, Who never sleeps, and Who causes all our work to prosper in His Name. Once you have matched your observations with relevant Scripture, integrate them into a statement, prayerfully considered, carefully crafted, and boldly set forth, that will be a record of how the glory of God has come to your attention in your daily journey with the Lord.