1808AFC022318 – What did you say?
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Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Today we have another guest on the page, and this time it is The Holy Bible. I won’t have much to say, but Scripture will. Belovéd, we are under attack like never before in this era. As Christians we are being characterized as mentally ill, unfit to lead, pariahs in our own society. We know we can listen to God. We have seen his work. We know in our hearts that what David Haas wrote is true:
We have been told. (↔ Music Link)
We’ve seen his face
and heard his voice alive in our hearts.
“Live in my love with all your heart.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”
There are so many key verses today! At the end of this list, there also a table with over a dozen more passages you can see. Some of those are pretty awesome as well.
Psalm 14:1-5 – 1 Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. 3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. 4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? 5 There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous.
Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Exodus 19:9 – 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.
Deuteronomy 4:36 – 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire.
1 Samuel 3:10 – 10 Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Proverbs 28:13-14 – 13 No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. 14 Happy is the one who is never without fear [reverence*], but one who is hard-hearted [unrepentant] will fall into calamity.
Job 5:13 – 13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
Psalm 85:8 – 8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
Proverbs 12:15 – 15 Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to advice.
John 10:27 – 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Romans 8:5-8 – 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit 
set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit] is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
John 8:47 – 47 Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.
*This may also be “without fear [of sinning]”
| Location | Core content |
| Genesis 22:1-19 | Moses listens, and obeys, when God tells him to sacrifice Isaac. |
| Proverbs 18:13 | Listen before you answer |
| Proverbs 19:20 | Listen to advice |
| Malachi 4:1-3 | All arrogant evildoers will be stubble to be burned |
| Psalm 32:8-9 | Don’t act like a mule |
| Mark 13:11 | The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say |
| John 10:6 | Other sheep will listen to Jesus’ voice |
| John 18:37c | “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” |
| Romans 8:31 | If God is for us, who can be against us? |
| Romans 8:33 | God will defend his Elect |
| Romans 10:17 | Faith comes by hearing |
| Hebrews 2:1-4 | We must pay greater attention to what we have heard |
| 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 | Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? |
| 1 John 5:15 | He hears us in whatever we ask |
| Revelation 3:20-24 | Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying |
What shall we do, then, Belovéd? I think first we must believe these promises and embrace them so as to completely live in, by, and through them. Secondly, I think we must, must pray for and educate the arrogantly evil persons who deny the reality of God as well as the reality of hearing him speak – mostly in our heart – but also, sometimes, in our minds and/or ears. I have heard him both ways, and he has never denied me his counsel or his love.
Belovéd, as we listen to his voice as articulated to us in Holy Scripture, let us take courage as the Psalmist says in Psalm 27:14 – 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Finally, in addition to embracing Scripture and praying while teaching the arrogant, we need to ask for God’s merciful intervention: For leaders throughout the world and all of those in authority, guide them to govern with morality, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and justice so we can all live together in Peace. AMEN. There is a great division – not only in our country, but also around the world – between the World’s Way and God’s Way. God’s Way will triumph, but there will be much more to endure as the divisions deepen, widen, and grow in intensity. Some of us might say, “l don’t want to get into all this, and neither should you. It’s just all politics, bad politics at that!” No, Belovéd, this is not just bad politics; this is Spiritual Warfare: Ephesians 6:12 – 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Even at the threshold of Heaven, evil strives to capture the weak and reckless and to drag them into Satan’s miserable pit of destruction.
Who else but God can bring peace to all the troubled souls who embrace the evils The World offers? We know a secret, Belovéd:
Psalm 37:3-7
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will make your vindication shine like the light,
and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out evil devices.
God will prepare us, as he prepared Abraham. Many times in these essays I’ve written about “My Old Friend Abraham.” Most of could never do the things Abraham did. Why? Because that is not our gift. Abram was a righteous man to whom God elected to revel himself as El Shaddai – Almighty God. Abram believed what God told him, and for his faith in God, El Shaddai made him Abraham the Father of Many Nations – and the founder of our faith in God. Abraham was prepared by God to do great things. We are all prepared by God to do some things. When we do part of those “some things” for ourselves, we are not giving all that God has given us. Every good and perfect gift comes from above (See James 1:17), so everything we have that is good comes from God through Christ Jesus. Everything we have that is not good does not. We should never try to give God the things that did not come from him; however, we can ask him to take them and make them good. That is what God does. He takes stuff that’s not-so-good and makes it wonderful. Believe it or else, he can even bring good things out of all the ugliness brought about in the past month, the past year, the past decade, the past century! Truly, “He hears us in whatever we ask,” and ” If God is for us, who can be against us?” I assure you it will not matter if it is those who “say in their hearts, “There is no God.'” Be still and wait on the Lord inwardly, but speak up and confront the arrogantly evil compassionately. What did you say? You said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
What did you say? You said, “God loves you, so I will, too. Now let’s see if we can solve this problem together.”
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
